Biohazard
by RaaxtheIceWarrior
Summary: When the Mysterons threaten to destroy Raccoon City, Spectrum are sent off to investigate, but some unusual foes are waiting for them... and they want brains.
1. Chapter 1

It was late at night in the Umbrella laboratory, Annette Birkin stepped into the viral storage room, glad to find it deserted. At times like this she was glad of some quiet moments of solace. However, it seemed any time she tried to relax her work was determined to catch up with her.

She walked past the circular pillar that stood in the middle of the room, at its centre were a ring of glass vials. Different viruses and vaccines she and her husband had spent their life's work dedicated to.

She walked over to the table, where there were various notes sprawled over the workplace. She tidied them, just for some minor distraction. Placing them back on the table, she pulled out a mobile phone and typed up a number. She placed it to her ear, pulling back her short blonde hair. She closed her tired eyes as she listened to the phone ringing. She picked up when a voice answered.

"Mommy?"

"Hello Sherry," she replied.

"Will you and daddy be home soon?" the young voice asked. Annette grimaced.

"I'm sorry Sherry, we've got some important work to do; we won't be back until late."

There was a pause.

"Okay mommy."

Annette sighed.

"Sherry, I'll see if your father and I can get some time away." A promise she'd made many times before.

"I miss you."

"I miss you too," she replied monotonously; she hung up. Of course they weren't going to get that time off. They were the foremost scientists in the facility, so the company kept them as busy as possible.

She flicked through the research notes she'd printed earlier on the latest strand of virus they'd managed to cultivate. The Gene-virus was currently proving to be unstable and they had been working furiously to try and rectify the problem. However the most recent success had followed with the perfection of the Tyrant-virus or t-virus, as everyone had taken to referring to it, capable of reanimating dead cells. She continued to check through her research notes. She stopped, a tremor slivered across her skin, she felt as if she was being watched. She looked around, finding no one there.

Suddenly the door slammed shut and the locks activated themselves. Annette spun round to see what had happened.

"What?" She walked over to the door and looked out the small square of glass. She couldn't see anyone outside who could have activated the locks. She reached into her pocket to dig out her key card. Behind her she didn't notice one of the vials begin to break.

Annette finally pulled out the key from the abyss of her pocket when she heard a tiny crack, she looked to see one of the vials shattered on the table. An acidic hiss bubbled from the mixture and a cloud of murky green gas began to appear.

She placed her hand to her face, and walked over to the pillar, unable to tell what had caused the vial to shatter. An exponential amount of gas was coming from the virus sample. How was that possible? She didn't have time to wonder about this as she turned towards the vent systems. They should be clearing the air right now. Why weren't they working? She started to cough as the air got thicker. She reached up for the vents, they were sealed tight shut. What was going on?

Annette choked, feeling she'd be sick, she could hardly see clearly in the thick mist, which the gas had created. Dizzy and confused she fell to the floor.

Annette crawled towards the door, coughing so violently she felt sick. She reached for the table and pulled herself up onto her feet. Her hands grabbed her key card, and she fumbled with it in between her glistening hands. She put the card into the reader, then collapsed on the floor.

The ventilation system turned on and the room cleared. The door slid open and a woman stepped into the room, she pocketed her own security card and watched as the body was dragged across the floor.

In the observation deck overlooking the main laboratory, William Birkin stood overseeing the main operations. He was a man in his late twenties with a long serious face, a concerned look had been constantly etched over him for the last few days. Dark tired eyes and an endlessly straight face, dark shadows clung to his face making him appear even more depressed than he already was.

Down below him he could see various scientists milling around, examining different specimens in their containment pods. A human shaped shadow cast onto the glass as two assistants were placing one of the cylindrical pods into its place.

The door slid open and he turned round to see who had entered.

"Annette," he called, glad to see a comforting face again.

"William," she addressed him, and smiled softly as she walked over to her husband. She put her hand on his shoulder but he didn't seem to notice, during these moments where he was so engrossed in his research he was always on edge.

She walked on over to the control panel and began typing a complex pattern of controls. On the main screen an alert popped up 'Biohazard Contamination Warning' but Annette ignored it and continued.

William turned to face her.

"Annette, what are you doing?"

She glanced up at him from the control panel, a vacant stare in her eyes. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a gun, she pulled the trigger twice. William lurched back, surprised by the impact of the bullets, he clutched his stomach and fell to his knees.

"Annette…"

Then he fell to the floor. Annette turned back to the screen, now illuminated with large warning lights.

'Do you wish to release Bio-Organic Specimens?'

She pushed one button on the panel; below, the containment pods for the experiments hissed open. The scientists examining them were caught in a state of surprise which quickly turned into panic.

In a matter of minutes the scientists were overwhelmed, unready for the attack by the creatures. The creations they had spent years bringing to life quickly devoured them.

Annette watched the scene unfold from the observation balcony, admiring the destruction she'd wrought. She continued to work at the controls, making the final preparations for her plan.

She glanced back to the lab below, by now all the scientists were dead, but some were starting to get back up again, becoming the same as the creatures that had killed them. Annette smiled.

"The Mysterons will be avenged…"

"This is the voice of the Mysterons, we know that you can hear us, Earthmen. We will continue to wage this war of nerves you started against us. Our next act of retaliation will be to destroy the population of Raccoon City."

"I think you all know why I've called you all here," Colonel White started, and the officers nodded. Everyone had assembled in the briefing room, and all the Spectrum officers were sitting around the familiar setting of the Colonel's circular table.

"We've all heard the Mysteron threat." His chair swivelled round and the large screen behind him was illuminated with a map of a large city, surrounded by a wide mountainous area.

"Raccoon City is the centre of American operations for a company called Umbrella Pharmaceutical Incorporated. They are one of the most prestigious pharmaceutical companies in the world. Just about all of America's medicinal products are produced in this city alone, so if it were to be destroyed all of North America's healthcare would come to a halt."

"Do we have any idea how they might intend to carry out their threat?" Captain Ochre asked. A quirky smile spread over his face as all the officers had made bets as to who could be the first to say that at the next meeting.

"Not at the moment," Colonel White replied, oblivious to the smirks on the officers' faces. The chair turned back to face them and the smiles had disappeared "You will be going to the city to investigate this matter further. When you arrive you will all be assigned to work with the authorities in Raccoon City: Captain Grey will be in charge of supervising ground operations, Captains Ochre and Magenta will be assigned to the Raccoon Police Department, and Captains Scarlet and Blue, you will be working with STARS."

"Stars?" they both repeated in unison.

The sunset across the horizon had painted the sky a bright orange streaked with bright red clouds, and threw the mountains that surrounded the open highway leading to Raccoon City into silhouette.

Down the motorway a motorbike roared, kicking up a long trail of dust from the dry road. The driver was a young woman wearing a tight black one-piece body suit which came up to her neck with short sleeves and legs. Over this was a dark pink denim jacket with a set of matching shorts, the edges of both were frayed where the sleeves and legs had been torn off. The join of the jacket covered by a low belt around her waist, and she wore brown knee high boots. Her hair was done in a ponytail but her fringe wafted openly in the breeze. The black fingerless gloves that covered her hands gripped around the bike's handle. On the back of the jacket was a large free hand design of an angel with the words 'Made in Heaven' written over the top.

She entered the city streets; she enjoyed having the entire road to herself, allowed to just view the whole world. A large truck suddenly blocked out her view, Claire sped up her motorbike, but ahead of her she saw a set of traffic lights turn from green to red. The bike's engines slowly died down into a patient hum.

The cyclist looked over to the truck that pulled up beside her, reading the big corporate slogan written on the side 'Umbrella Pharmaceutical Incorporated' 'Preserving the Health of the People'. She briefly caught the eyes of the truck driver, a fat man slumped back on his seat, stuffing a sandwich into his mouth even though he hadn't finished chewing the amount that was already in there. He winked at her and she turned her head away.

The light turned green and the bike's engines roared into life and she happily turned the vehicle down the street as the truck continued down the road. She was heading for a very specific location, and at that moment she was determined nothing would stop her from reaching it.

A sleek blue Spectrum Passenger Jet took off from Cloudbase later that day. On board were all five Spectrum Captains. Captain Scarlet was up in the cockpit, Rhapsody Angel was going to be flying the jet and he had decided to say a quick hello as the journey started.

"You might want to get a seat now Paul. We're going to take off," she smiled at him.

"Ok, but you know I'll be back don't you?" he said as he got up. He caught her eye one last time as he headed back to the passenger area.

There was plenty of room for them all to have their own seats but Captain Scarlet had decided to share a seat next to Captain Blue, as he approached the seat he saw Blue going through some important Spectrum files.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Just going over the mission briefing."

"Didn't you check through it before we left?"

"Well, I was going to…"

"But you just happened to run into Symphony?"

The answer slipped from his mouth.

"…yes."

"I knew it."

"What was that thing the Colonel mentioned? Starts?

"STARS."

"Right." Blue looked at the document. "Special Tactics And Rescue Squad?"

"They're a special division of the police force in Raccoon City. I checked it up on the computer before we left, STARS were founded by Spectrum and the World Government, in light of the Mysteron threat it seemed a good idea to better equip civilian police forces to be better prepared."

"Well it looks like they're gonna get to see some action then."

"Yes, it also has the added bonus of allowing us to search for possible Spectrum recruits."

"Anyone in the Raccoon division worthy of a mention?"

"As far as I could tell only one, his name's Albert Wesker. According to the report he actually helped found the team in Raccoon City. So far he's shown himself to be a pragmatic and decisive leader and he seems the most likely candidate to make it into Spectrum."

"He's in charge of the team you're leading," Blue noticed from the file "Hope he doesn't mind you muscling in on his outfit. I've known guys like that, they can get pretty tetchy when someone else starts taking charge."

"Only time will tell."

Alone in his single floor apartment, Chris sat on the sofa with the television on in the background but he wasn't watching it. A dark and handsome face, his eyes dully skimmed through a magazine article not really soaking up the writing before him, he closed the magazine and wondered about flicking through the channels, even though he knew there was nothing on.

He wore a green t-shirt and brown trousers, his hair was finely trimmed into a crew cut and his body was well honed. His apartment was quite bare and dull, a simple colour scheme covering the walls, only a minimal amount of personal effects to decorate the whole place. All were laid out in an ordered uninteresting fashion, the most noticeable was the array of photographs on the windowsill, and most of them were quite similar. Almost all of them showed him in some sort of uniform, a very young version brightly smiled in an air force uniform. One of them showed him with an older man with a beard in his thirties with his arms over Chris's shoulder. Next to that a picture of Chris in a more military style getup, crouching holding a rifle along with a group of other people, the man from the other picture was standing behind him. Chris himself was seen crouching next to a woman in a blue uniform. And those two appeared separately in a picture in more casual wear. The only picture in his collection that didn't have any sense of military presence featured him with another girl, much younger, as they stood outside an old building on her first day at college, and even in that he looked too upright and rigid to fit into the civilian ritual.

The doorbell rang and he got up to open the door, a smile of anticipation coming over his face. The door opened and he found someone waiting for him, the young girl from the college picture wearing a pink cycling outfit.

"Chris!" the girl cried out, she leaped forward and wrapped her arms around him, barely managing to get them all the way round his shoulders, he however managed to wrap his arms quite snugly around her.

"Claire," he said. He looked down at her "It's good to see you again."

"You too."

"Would you like to come in?"

"Alright then." Chris led the way back into his apartment. It didn't take long for her to formulate an opinion.

"Wow, the flat I share with Elza is nicer than this."

"And what do you mean by that?" Chris asked.

"Oh come on, Chris, you know you're terrible at this."

"Well I'm glad to see your studies haven't changed your manners one bit."

She folded her arms and looked at him, he flicked her nose in the same way he used to do when they were kids. They both broke out into a bout of laughter, and she hugged him again, feeling secure in her brother's arms again.

"Come on." He ruffled her hair and she let go. A thought passed through his head "Just a minute."

He went to his cupboard and pulled out a box.

"Sorry I missed your birthday," he apologised, Claire laughed and took it, opening the lid. A smirk spread across her face.

Inside was a combat knife, engraved on the handle was the same freehand design as on Claire's jacket. A special holster for it was placed under the knife itself so it could be placed across her shoulders.

"Is this your original?" she asked.

"Yeah, from when I first joined."

"Oh Chris, I can't take this."

"Don't worry, I don't have any use for it."

She turned to him.

"Thank you."

The phone interrupted them, Chris picked it up.

"Hello Redfield residence… what do you mean?… tonight? I can't… yes, of course, I'm on my way." He replaced the receiver "I'm sorry Claire."

"It's important," she answered for him.

"That was my captain, he never phones directly, unless it's really important."

"I understand."

"I'm really sorry."

"I know."

Chris lowered his head.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." He placed his hand on her shoulder, she knew he wouldn't lie to her "You just wait here."

"I will."

He smiled and walked out the apartment, leaving her on her own.

Chris entered the STARS locker room, finding Barry and Joseph getting ready. Another member of the team, Brad, was already finished; he sat on one of the benches at the far side of the room.

"Hello Chris," Barry called. He was the oldest member of the team and Chris's old friend, a man nearly in his forties. Big and beardy he wore a red combat vest over a white shirt.

"Hey Barry, how's Kathy?" Chris said as he opened his locker and pulled out his uniform.

"She's fine."

"Bet she wasn't too happy you had to rush off so suddenly," he said as he pulled a white shirt over his body, a STARS logo emblazoned on the shoulder, the same as all the others were wearing.

"No, Moira and Polly are starting school tomorrow. She doesn't want me to miss it this time," Barry replied, "What about you? Weren't you supposed to be meeting your sister or something?"

"Yeah, I haven't seen her since she started college, she just showed up when the call came," Chris said as he buttoned up his green combat vest.

"That kinda sucks," Joe said, putting a red bandana over his head.

"Tell me about it," Chris pulled out his boots and put them on, tucking the ends of his trousers into the black military boots before doing up the laces.

"Hey guys." Everyone turned as Jill entered the locker room. The same woman as in Chris's photograph, she was wearing a blue tube top and a very short black skirt which showed as much leg as it could. The brown knee high boots were the only thing that saved it from being indecent exposure, just about.

"Jill you wear that?" Chris cried out in surprise.

"Yeah, of course," she said, heading over to her own locker "Why? You find something wrong with it?"

"How come I never get to see you like that?"

"Because only I wear this when I intend to go for a big girls' night out, and last time I checked I didn't think you were a big girl."

"With those legs I could be…" Joseph muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Jill shouted, she stormed towards Joseph, who immediately threw his arms up fearing she'd hit him, she started demanding to know what he'd just said.

Chris shot a mischievous glance at Barry. They both nodded and got up silently, creepi

ng towards Jill.

"JILL SANDWICH!" Chris exclaimed. Suddenly he and Barry leapt upon Jill from either side, grasping her in a gigantic hug she couldn't escape.

"Guys, get off," she laughed, unable to push the two away as they just hugged her tighter. Eventually they let go, she crossed her arms and glared at both of them, though the smile still hadn't left her face.

"Awww," Chris pouted, "it's just 'cause we love you that much Jill."

She shot a credulous look and then pushed him over. He fell back on the bench and raised his arms in protest.

"But it's the truth!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jill sighed and put a light blue shirt over her top. She grabbed the dark blue body armour from her locker and then draped it over her shoulders. She took out her beret and placed it on her head, brushing her hair past her ears. She could still hear Chris complaining to about Barry about the way she didn't seem to believe him.

"I want a Jill sandwich," she heard Joe complain.

"Maybe next time," Barry replied.

"Are you all ready yet?" Jill suddenly stood straight as the authoritative voice called. Everyone had stopped and turned, a man in a completely black STARS uniform stood at the entrance. His blonde hair was slicked back and he wore dark sunglasses over his eyes.

"Nearly, Captain Wesker," Chris answered as he strapped his token knife holster to the left side of his vest.

"The people from Spectrum will be here soon. So I want all of you to be in top condition, it's not often we get such high profile guests, so let's make a good impression."

"Yes sir." Everyone nodded.

"Right, if you're all ready let's move out," Wesker announced and everyone followed him as he headed to the main briefing room.

"Is it me or has Wesker been on edge since they said Spectrum were coming?" Joseph whispered.

"Really? I didn't notice any difference," Barry said.

It was a few more hours before the Spectrum personnel arrived at Raccoon City. The officers got access to a Spectrum Saloon Car and headed off to their destination. Captain Scarlet pulled up beside the Raccoon Police Department and the STARS Headquarters building.

"Well this is it," he announced, the Captains in the back seats looked out the saloon's window. "Let's go in then," he said opening the car door. Ochre, Magenta and Blue headed up the stairs to the police department.

At the entrance to both buildings three individuals were waiting for them. One in a black uniform came over to address them.

"Spectrum, I presume."

"Yes."

"I'm Albert Wesker, captain of STARS Alpha team."

The other man introduced himself.

"Enrico Marini, captain of STARS Bravo Team." He wore a black STARS combat vest, the same as Wesker's but with a normal white shirt underneath. He had straight black hair and a moustache hung under his nose. He had a much bigger bulk than Wesker, but the Alpha captain carried a stature of authority that showed he was obviously in charge.

"I'm Captain Scarlet and this is Captain Blue, we've both been assigned to accompany you."

The third wasn't dressed in a uniform but he was wearing a smart shirt and a brown waistcoat. He had a large build and seemed to be in his late thirties, a thick brown moustache covered his face, and he carried himself with an air of self-importance.

"Brian Irons, chief of Police," he introduced himself, talking to Scarlet.

"I believe you're with us actually," Magenta smiled, the chief slowly turned, he didn't seem to like being interrupted. The grin on Magenta's face didn't help very much either. Ochre stepped forward in an attempt to make reparations.

"Captain Magenta and I have been assigned to police operations." The chief conceded and led the two into the police station, his smile barely suppressed his hatred for Magenta, who was still grinning if not just to annoy him.

"Ahem," Wesker coughed, dragging Blue and Scarlet's attention back to him, "If you'd like to come with us you shall meet the teams you've been individually assigned to."

In the main briefing room the first of the STARS teams had assembled, waiting for their illustrious guests to arrive. The captain's chair was currently empty. Barry, Chris, Jill, Joseph and Brad sat scattered amongst the tables; Alpha team.

There was an informal air throughout the room, several minor conversations had broken out, casual chat laced with juvenile rivalries that ran throughout the team. Joe was attempting to make a joke which Jill half-heartedly listened to. Barry corrected him once the punch line was revealed. Brad, wearing his yellow uniform shuffled in his seat and didn't make eye contact with anyone, his hair was in a crew cut though not as well kept as Chris's, possibly because he kept running his fingers though his hair in agitation. Chris himself had grown bored and was idly digging his knife into the table making small scratches on its surface.

The captains entered and everyone suddenly settled into a professional mood. Chris's knife quickly disappeared back in its holster. Wesker took his place at the head of the table. Captain Scarlet took the seat that had been laid out for him next to the STARS captain.

"Gentlemen, I'm happy to introduce the Spectrum Captain who will now be taking charge of the team," Wesker introduced him, though his deep voice didn't show any sign of emotion at all.

Wesker nodded and everyone stood to attention.

"Chris Redfield, reconnaissance."

"Jill Valentine, mechanical supervisor."

"Barry Burton, weapons expert."

"Joseph Frost, maintenance and vehicle supervisor."

"Brad Vickers, I'm the helicopter pilot."

Captain Scarlet nodded and they all took their places again.

"Thank you all." Scarlet stood up "You may not know, but we've been called here to deal with a terrorist threat to destroy Raccoon City. And as such we've been assigned total control of this department for now. Captain Blue and I or any member of Spectrum now stand for total authority whilst this operation is in effect."

One of the members wearing a red bandana and a dark grey uniform raised his hand.

"Yes… Joseph?" Scarlet tried to remember his name correctly.

"Do you have any information about what kind of terrorist attack we might be expecting?" Joe asked.

"Not at the moment, the enemy group here is particularly cunning, and generally employ any number of methods when it comes to achieving their threats. Until such time as this threat is over we'll need you to keep alert."

_Oh great_, thought Chris, _I'm gonna be here all night_.

Annette secured the last of the creatures into the capsule, the creature writhed and snarled under the restraining straps holding it in place. This thing had previously been one of the scientists she'd been working with, a recognition badge emblazoned his name 'John Sullivan' in red letters, but now this thing was looking up at her with no sense of recognition, only an animalistic hatred and hunger filled its eyes as it tried to break loose. Its sounds were completely silenced after she shut the capsule lid.

She went back to the control panel, activating the loading system. In a matter of seconds the row of capsules was being transported up to the loading depot outside.

Annette headed back to the observation deck, the body of her husband still lying on the floor. From here the security screens were already trained on the line of Umbrella trucks outside. The drivers had already begun loading the capsules into the trucks as they came out on the loading platform. She leaned on the receiver button on the control panel.

"Mr. Mason?" She watched on screen as one of the larger men walked back to the truck cabin and picked up the microphone.

"Yes?"

"Once you are done uploading the new Bio-capsules you will begin transporting them immediately to the required Umbrella storage facilities."

"Whatever you say darlin'." Annette had never liked him when she was human. But this time her voice portrayed no sense of her usual abhorrence.

"Just do it quickly and professionally. I want these delivered as soon as possible." She put the speaker down, and quietly watched as they had nearly finished loading up the last few capsules. In her hand she held a small device, a remote detonator, her thumb poised on the trigger button.

Just a matter of time…

Claire sat on the sofa, idly flicking through channels on the television. She was hoping it was just some false alarm and Chris would get back soon, but the hours still seemed to be dragging on and that possibility was slowly fading. She flicked through various reality shows and assorted trash, anything to fill up the time.

The phone rang and she was glad of something to pull her away from this depressing myriad of rubbish. She picked up the phone and pressed it to her ear.

"Hello, Redfield residence."

"Claire?" She picked up at the voice of her brother on the other end.

"Chris, so what's happening? Will you be getting back soon?"

"I'm sorry."

Her shoulders fell.

"They're sending us on a mission. It looks like I won't be back tonight."

She answered back.

"Oh, ok then…"

"I'm really sorry. I'll do everything I can to get back as soon as possible. I'll see you soon."

"Ok, bye."

She placed the phone back down on the receiver, took a long drawn out sigh and tilted her head to look out the window.

Right, she decided. She headed towards the cupboard where she'd left her biker suit. If Chris wasn't going to come back she was going to have to find something else to do. She took the suit out and put the jacket on, pulling the zip up. She didn't know her way around Raccoon City but she could find a good nightclub no matter where she was. She also put on the knife holster and headed towards the door, grabbing a spare set of keys. She wasn't intending to be back for a while.

Now the trucks were spread throughout Raccoon City, Annette watched their movements on the monitor screen. A set of six red dots constantly marking their positions, Annette continually turned the detonator in her hands, waiting for the right moment when they were due to go past a set of busy, highly populated areas. She watched, one had just entered the high street, her thumb now hovering over the trigger. Not yet… then another truck turned down one of the residential areas. She squeezed on the button. The signals stopped moving, but the view on the screen didn't show off any of the drama and chaos that followed in that simple action's wake.

Claire killed the engines on her motorbike; she'd heard something. A sudden rippling sound; it was an explosion, she listened out and the sound of people's screams were heard soon afterward. She turned the bike round and headed in the direction of the chaos.

When she came round the corner she saw an upturned truck. It had caught fire and several people were spread around, most not sure what to do. One person was trying to help pull out the man who lay unconscious in the driver's seat. Several people seemed to have gathered from outside their houses, a few were in their dressing gowns. Claire headed towards one of the surprised onlookers.

"What happened?" she asked. The bystander didn't seem entirely sure himself.

"I don't know, the thing just kind of… exploded," he said waving his arms about to illustrate what had happened. It didn't really help.

"I'm going to see if I can help," she said, heading towards the devastation.

"Look! Somebody's alive!" a woman shouted. Claire turned to see that someone was getting out of the wreckage and stumbled forward. Several shards of debris seemed to be lodged in the man's chest and his clothing had caught fire.

"Oh my god!" someone exclaimed.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Claire shouted. Someone finally seemed to gain some sort of sensibility and rushed back into their house. She saw no one else wanted to approach the survivor so she made the effort and headed over to check upon him.

"Mister! You ok?" she shouted, it felt like a stupid question, even from here she could see the vacant expression in his eyes.

_He must be in some state of shock_, she thought. He slowly turned round to face her, she found something unnerving in that stare. But she carried on, she knew her brother would never shy away from helping someone.

"My name's Claire Redfield." She extended out her hand. "I'm here to help."

Suddenly the man lurched for her, she retreated backwards but the man grabbed her and the force sent her flying backwards onto the floor. He was trying to attack her, he pushed his head forward, possessed in some sort of rage. His jaw kept snapping at her. She tried to force him back, but his head slowly reached her neck.

"Get off her!" One of the bystanders grabbed the man and pulled him back, instead the man turned round and suddenly sunk his teeth into the new intrusion. The man screamed and fell to the ground as his attacker began savagely tearing into him.

Claire got up, not sure what to do. She could see another survivor of the crash was also attacking another bystander.

She reached for the attacker, pulling him off the man who'd helped her. She helped him to get up, seeing that he was bleeding profusely, a large red circle had stained his shirt.

"Do you think you can stand?" she asked. He was still clutching where he'd been bitten.

"I think so…" he muttered. Claire was worried, he seemed to be fading fast.

"Don't worry, I think the hospital's somewhere around here," she said reassuringly but really she had no idea where it was. She just had to get as far away from the person that had attacked them as soon as possible.

"Come on, I'm sure it isn't too far."

"Sir! Something's just come up!" A junior police officer had just burst in whilst Captain Ochre and Magenta were talking to Chief Irons.

"What is it Grimes?" Irons asked.

"There're reports of riots happening all over town. The descriptions are sketchy at best but people keep mentioning vicious attacks," the officer reported.

"Assemble riot squads right away then."

"Yes sir." And the officer ran back out of the room.

"Chief, I'd like to accompany one of the squads, just to check it out." Ochre stepped forward.

"You think this has something to do with your investigation?" the chief asked.

"It might do, it'd be good to check it out just in case," Ochre said.

"Fine, I'll assign you to a squad." Ochre nodded and headed off, Magenta followed him.

"You think it's the Mysterons?" he whispered.

"Might be, if it is we can't afford to ignore it. If it's as bad as that officer made out the Mysterons might well be involved."

"You want me to tag along?"

"No, one of us should stay here and check that everything's fine at this end."

"Don't kill yourself out there."

"Of course I won't."

Claire continued down the street, the man's condition was getting worse. Around her several people had taken on the mannerisms of the person that had attacked her.

"Don't worry nearly there," she kept reassuring him, running out of things to say, he was fading fast "We'll be there any second."

She turned to the man, suddenly he lunged at her in the same way the other man had, she quickly pushed him away before he could bite her. His movements became slower, less coordinated.

"No! Stay back!" she shouted, pulling the knife from out of her sheath. But he didn't seem to notice it. He kept creeping towards her, his arms outstretched. His voice became a longing moan and he closely cornered her.

She looked around seeing people were either running around in a state of panic but others seemed to have taken on the same manner, their movements had become slow shuffles, she looked around realising just how many people had already been turned.

"Oh God no…"

The officers poured out of the van, all fully dressed in dark blue body armour. Full riot gear had been given out; as Ochre stepped out of the van it made him feel a bit vulnerable. Nevertheless he put on an air of authority as the squad sergeant ordered his men into their positions, all taking up different stances, guns at the ready.

"What have we got?" Ochre addressed him.

"Several hostiles in the street."

"Sarge, I see one." The riot officers turned, several figures were heading slowly towards them. Their movements were jerky, as if they'd all forgotten how to walk. All of them looked dishevelled, bloodstains around their mouths.

"Are these guys drunk?" one squaddy asked.

"Keep sharp, people!" the sergeant shouted, "Spread out!"

Ochre readied his gun, keeping it trained on the figures.

"Don't fire yet," the sergeant shouted.

The officers didn't move, but the people were getting closer. One officer with a megaphone relayed threats.

"Don't come any closer. We will open fire." They didn't obey, they just kept coming.

"Open fire!"

A burst of erratic gunfire opened up. The shots were accurate, hitting the figures square in the chest, but none of them seemed affected, they kept shuffling on, slowly surrounded the officers. Ochre aimed higher and shot one in the head, it jerked backward and then fell to the ground.

One of them was almost on top of one officer, he was panicking, he kept firing at the chest as this thing kept walking towards him.

"Aim for the head," Ochre shouted, but the junior officer didn't have it in him. He kept firing at the chest. The figure grabbed him and bit into him.

"Andy!" his friend shouted, he ran over to him and pulled the zombie off, then fired wildly with the rifle.

"You little piece of…"

"Officer!" Ochre grabbed his shoulder "That's enough!"

He saw that the police were starting to get surrounded by these things.

"Fall back! That's an order!"

The officer was attending his friend.

"It's okay Shane, it's just a scratch."

Ochre crouched down.

"Come on, I'll help."

They both supported him and began falling back. Ochre's cap microphone dropped from its resting place.

"This is Ochre to all Spectrum agents. Spectrum Is Red. Requesting immediate backup."

Now they'd been introduced to the teams individually they'd been brought together whilst Blue and Scarlet awaited new orders.

The epaulettes on Blue and Scarlet's shoulders lit up with an orange light and the microphones from their caps dropped to their mouths. Most of the STARS personnel watched as they tried to listen in on the conversation. The microphones flipped back into place and the Captains looked up.

"We've just got word from Captain Ochre! We're moving out," Scarlet announced.

"Right, I want everyone ready in five minutes," Wesker ordered, and everyone got up ready for the mission.

Ochre and four of the RPD officers retreated back down an alleyway. Ochre and Shane still supported the wounded officer over their shoulders. He wasn't looking too good, his face was starting to go pale. Two officers were falling behind shooting the attackers. The streets suddenly seemed full of them.

"Someone scout ahead, check that we don't get ambushed," Ochre shouted; one young blonde officer rushed off to the opening at the end of the street.

"There's more down here." He fired off a few shots. Behind Ochre the gunfire was still going on. He couldn't organise everyone like this.

"I need you to take your friend, you okay with that?" he said. Shane nodded. Ochre slipped under and ran to the head of the party. In the next street there were other shufflers, alerted by the sound of the gunfire.

"Which way do we go?" the blonde officer asked, "They're on all sides."

"Head to the right, there's less of them that way."

The police officers headed back. Ochre's epaulettes flashed grey and his microphone dropped to his mouth again.

"Captain Grey to Captain Ochre."

"Ochre here."

"What's happening?"

"We need to secure the area. These things have spread quite far into the city already."

"What about you?"

"Our unit's trying to make it back to base. In the confusion half of us got separated. It's me and four other officers, one's wounded."

"You want us to send a squad in after you?"

"No, we'll make it back ourselves. You guys need to focus on stopping these things getting any further into the city."

"SIG. Good luck."

The line went dead. They were on their own again. The blonde officer fired off as many rounds as he could, trying to make sure they didn't get surrounded. The sergeant pointed out a construction site, there were only a few zombies and there was a lockable gate.

The officers retreated inside and Ochre and the blonde officer started dispatching the last few zombies. The sergeant closed the gates as Shane entered carrying his wounded friend.

"That was good shooting," Ochre complimented the blonde officer. "What's your name?"

"Leon S. Kennedy. I'm new to the force, I just joined a couple of weeks ago." He checked his gun. He'd run out of bullets and was about to throw the gun away.

"Don't." Ochre stopped him. "Even without ammo it can still be a weapon."

Ochre turned to the officer attending his friend. He was looking terrible now, his eyes had sunk into his sockets and his skin was deathly white, the only way Ochre could tell he was alive was from the low moaning sound he seemed to be making. His friend was looking through his equipment for any medical supplies that might help.

"I'm sure I had a first-aid spray somewhere," he mumbled to himself.

Andy's body jerked violently before he fell limp, then his whole body began to shake.

"Andy?" his friend shouted. Andy's eyes opened, he stared up at his comrade as he pulled himself up, a ravenous look in his eyes.

"Andy?" He leaped forward and gouged into his friend's uniform, tearing away at the fabric until it reached the meat underneath. The other officers were startled by their friend's sudden act of cannibalism.

"What the hell?"

Ochre pulled out his gun and aimed it at Andy. The sergeant stopped him.

"You can't shoot him, he's one of us."

"No, he's one of them." The sergeant still couldn't let him shoot his comrade "In that case, we need to get out of here."

Ochre and Leon pushed the gates open. The three officers ran out, even though the creatures surrounded them now. Ochre tried to fire as many shots as he could. Leon was hitting them off with the butt of his gun. They were surrounded on all sides, separated from each other by the tide of swarming zombies. Ochre lost sight of the blonde officer and he saw the sergeant being grabbed, two of the creatures pulled him back and bit into him. Ochre pushed the zombies around him away, too many were trying to reach for him, getting in each others' way. He broke free of the swarm and escaped. He briefly turned back to the horde, keeping an eye out for the officer, but he couldn't see anything. He fled before the zombies could get upon him.

The sound of the helicopter's engines roared in Captain Scarlet's head, he pressed the receiver to his ear to hear what Colonel White was saying.

"Magenta and the remaining RPD forces have been sent out. You should go to assist them as soon as possible, stop this outbreak from getting any further into the city."

"SIG." The line went dead and Scarlet surveyed the city. People had panicked, not knowing what to do, chaos and confusion had only made it easier for these things to infect and spread across the city. A set of slow shuffling figures could be seen dotted throughout the city streets.

"Are those survivors?"

"No, the attackers aren't very fast. If it's simply walking instead of running wildly for its life then it's an enemy not an ally," Wesker said.

"Captain, I've spotted one." Scarlet turned thinking Chris was talking to him, though he was referring to Wesker. Still he came to see what Chris had found.

Chris was on point; he lowered the binoculars and pointed into the midst of the city. One lone survivor was running through the streets. Running at a slowly degrading pace, lots of slowly moving bodies were trying to follow him approaching from all sides.

"There's nothing we can do," Wesker said as he went back to his seat.

"Sir?" Chris asked.

"We don't have a place to touch down in the streets. There are too many of them anyway, we wouldn't be able to get them out without being overrun. We can't jeopardise the mission because of one survivor."

"Well, I thought that Spectrum had the authority here," Jill corrected him, "so doesn't the decision lie with him?"

Everyone turned to Scarlet, he paused and gave his answer.

"If we can find a place to touch down we might be able to do it."

The pilot scanned the area, looking for a possible landing site.

"Are there any open roofs where we reach the streets easily?"

"Yes, look! There's one." Brad pointed to a warehouse. It was quite low and not too far from the fleeing figure.

"Right, set down there." Scarlet addressed the rest of the team. "When we land Wesker, Jill, Barry and myself will go in to secure the survivor. Joseph, secure the warehouse. Chris, the file said you were the best shot?"

"Best there is in Alpha Team."

"But Forrest still beats you on the firing range," Joseph said.

"I had a flu that last time."

"You take point on the roof. Give us some covering fire. Brad will stay and keep the engines running so we can get out as quickly as possible."

"Right, let's suit up," Wesker shouted. Chris grabbed the sniper rifle hanging from the helicopter wall.

The moment the helicopter touched down everybody leaped into position. Military training kicked in and they all took up their allotted positions.

Chris took up a position at the edge of the roof.

"I can see him, he's just coming down the street."

Scarlet moved everybody out. They headed down the main set of stairs to the warehouse. It was empty as none of the zombie creatures seemed to have bothered staying in the area. They headed down the stairs to reach the main entrance, the doors were sealed but in a few minutes, Barry, Scarlet and Joseph had pushed the doors open.

"Joseph, you stay behind and make sure we have a clean escape once we get back here."

"Yes sir." He nodded to Scarlet, the Spectrum Captain led the charge out onto the streets. Outside the place was littered with zombies. Jill and Barry instantly readied their guns.

"Only fire if you have to," Wesker reprimanded, "we don't want to waste shots or attract anymore of them."

They lowered their guns.

"So long as we keep moving we should be able to avoid them," Scarlet said, "Let's go."

The team broke out into a run. Down the street they could see the man still running for his life, he'd already attracted a large crowd. Jill aimed and shot at one of the zombies, she hit it in the chest and it continued. The survivor tripped over and with a clear shot they opened fire, several of them fell to the ground. Scarlet rushed over and helped the man to his feet.

"You okay?" He continued to fire at the approaching horde.

"Yeah." The man shook as he spoke.

"Get back to the others, they'll cover your escape."

Once the man had sped off one of the zombies grabbed Scarlet reaching for his neck. A shot went straight through its head and it fell limp. Scarlet turned, seeing Chris at the rooftop not too far away. He reloaded the sniper rifle and continued to take down as many zombies as he could.

Joseph was keeping watch inside the warehouse, none of the zombies outside had noticed him, they seemed more attracted to the crowd of moving food outside, but he still kept watch, waiting for Alpha team to return. He didn't notice as upstairs a zombie shuffled out of an office and headed to the roof.

Inside the helicopter Brad kept trying to look over the side to see what was going on, though mostly he had to guess from Chris's constant firing. He heard something behind in the helicopter, he unbuckled his seatbelt and got up to see what it was. He screamed and fell backwards as a zombie lurched for him, dropping his gun on the floor. He tried to reach for it but the zombie reached in to bite him. He retreated and fell out of the cockpit.

"Chris!" he shouted, barely heard over the helicopter motors. He ran back and tugged Chris's arm. He dropped the sniper rifle and pulled out his handgun, the zombie was still awkwardly trying to clamber out of the helicopter; Chris opened fire.

They heard the gunshots from the roof.

"That must be Chris," Jill said.

"Something must have happened."

"Let's get back." Scarlet shot another zombie and the team all rushed back into the warehouse. Joseph pulled the doors open for them. They rushed up the stairs, they rushed past several offices and Captain Scarlet noticed some of the doors they'd gone past hadn't been open when they were here before. From one of the rooms a set of zombies lurched at them. Survivors who'd tried to hide in the storerooms. The teams opened fire, but it was so closed in that one of them got a hold of Barry.

Jill and Scarlet reached forward and threw it off, the zombie fell backwards losing its balance. Wesker fired a shot straight at its head. They all turned back to head to the roof and were surprised to see Chris and Brad heading towards them.

"What the hell happened?"

"The zombies made it onto the roof. We're blocked off from this way."

"I think I saw a second entrance on the other side," Joe said.

"Let's go," Scarlet shouted, leading the charge. They headed down the gantry way. Jill and Brad fell behind covering the rear. Jill kept firing and Brad flinched every time she did.

"Brad, where's your gun?"

"Well…" A zombie burst through one of the service tunnels. Grabbing hold of Brad's leg, it dragged him down along with it.

He managed to catch his grip on the edge of the floor. Jill grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up. Scarlet turned round to see why Jill and Brad had fallen behind.

"Somebody help them!" Barry headed back, he aimed his gun into the tunnel and shot the zombie. It fell limp and slid down the tunnel but another one was at Brad's feet.

"I can't hold on," he said; he was beginning to slip out of Jill's grasp. Barry reached forward to grab him just as he let go. He slid down the tunnel into the darkness.

"No!" Jill shouted. Barry pulled her up.

"Come on, we can't do anything."

He pushed her forwards to catch up with the rest of the team. Chris and Scarlet went first as they headed up the stairs. They both kicked the door to the roof open and fired at the zombies surrounding the helicopter. Some of them fell instantly and they started to clear a path to the helicopter.

"Everyone get in as quickly as you can," Scarlet shouted. The team clambered in, shots still going off. "Who can fly this thing?"

"I can." Barry took the pilot's seat and took off. His piloting skills weren't as smooth as Brad's and the helicopter lurched forward, throwing everyone off balance. But it took off into the sky and they managed to escape.

Everyone calmed down, Chris went to check on Jill, she was shaking knowing she hadn't been able to save Brad. Scarlet got up from his seat to address the survivor. His hair was dishevelled and what Scarlet had originally mistaken for a jacket was actually the remains of a lab coat, shredded and torn to half its original length.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah… fine." He still shook, not quite having recovered from his ordeal.

"Well, you're safe now," Scarlet assured him "What exactly were you doing there?"

"Well, I managed to get out before the others got infected. I don't know what happened, Birkin just went crazy and let all those things loose… I only got out because I wasn't in the lab at the time…"

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"This whole thing… it started in the Umbrella laboratory… it's caused by a virus that reanimates dead cells. That's what those things are. But one of the chief scientists let all the specimens loose in the labs and they infected everybody, they must've gotten onto the streets."

"That's crazy," Joe announced, everyone else wasn't sure what to make of it. Wesker's face was nonchalant behind the sunglasses.

"You've worked on this virus then?" Scarlet pulled back his attention. "Do you know anyway to counteract it?"

"No, at the lab we were working on a new virus, the G-Virus. All the research for this virus was held done in a mansion owned by Umbrella in the Arklay mountains."

A red light on Colonel White's desk lit up and he activated the receiver.

"Captain Scarlet, any news?"

"Yes Colonel, we found a scientist who knows how this outbreak started. Apparently it was caused by a virus."

"A virus?"

"Yes sir, he says the source of this outbreak is coming from an Umbrella laboratory in the heart of the city," Scarlet announced. "But also that the source of this virus comes from a mansion in the Arklay mountains."

"I see," Colonel White "I want you to head up a team to the mansion, find out anything you can about the virus. The answer to stopping this outbreak might lie there."

"Yes sir."

The receiver went dead, Colonel White turned to his assistant.

"Lieutenant Green, contact Captain Blue. We need someone to investigate this laboratory, maybe we can stop this outbreak at its source."

"Yes Colonel."

"And have Dr. Fawn ready to leave for Raccoon City immediately, if the source of this incident is a virus his medical knowledge might be of some use."

Captain Magenta jumped out of the Spectrum Saloon Car having followed the RPD, he quickly found Captain Grey organising operations. He walked over to him, eager to know what was going on.

"Grey, what's happening?" he asked. Grey turned round having been in the middle of giving orders to some RPD officers.

"Magenta, glad you're here." He finished the order and then continued with Magenta "These things are all over the place. We're trying to help set up blockades to stop these things reaching any further."

"What about Scarlet and Blue?"

"They're on their way, along with those STARS teams. It seems they'll be a lot of help."

"Where's Ochre?"

"He was with one of the first patrols, the first wave were unprepared for the attacks and were overrun. We haven't heard anything from him since."

A loud whirring noise rushed over their heads, a STARS helicopter touched down. A red uniformed officer stepped out and rendezvoused with Grey and Magenta.

"Scarlet, any news?"

"We've got something. We picked up a survivor, he's a scientist who says this whole thing is actually a viral outbreak. We've found out where the virus originally came from. We'll be heading to a location in the mountains to find out what we can about the virus."

"What about us here?"

"Blue and Bravo team are heading into the city to try to stop the source of the virus, if they're successful then all we need to do is stop this outbreak getting any further."

"SIG." both officers repeated.

"Magenta, you come with me and I'll tell you how we can co-ordinate this outbreak."

"SIG." Magenta and Grey went off and Scarlet turned back to Alpha team, standing ready for new orders.

"We'll be taking a Spectrum helicopter to reach the Arklay facility, but it'll only be able to take five of us. Someone will have to stay here and help the RPD."

"I'll stay," Barry volunteered, "I'm the weapons expert, I might be more useful here."

"Alright then," Scarlet nodded. He turned to the rest. "Let's get ready to go."

Brad Vickers ran through the street, narrowly avoiding the zombies that lurched for him.

"Oh God!" He kept running, interrupting two zombies hunched over a body. He ran straight through them and his boot came down on something squishy.

"Oh God!" He headed to turn the corner into the next street. Another horde of zombies were waiting there. They turned round to walk towards the new delicacy that had appeared.

"Oh God!" He rushed back and found himself caught in between the zombies that had been following him earlier. He edged back surrounded on all sides. There was an alleyway but it was a dead end, he stepped backwards and tripped over an upturned trashcan, the zombies still staggering towards him, a look of ravenous hunger in their dead eyes. Brad scuttled back on his hands and feet.

"Oh God! SOMEBODY help!" They reached out their hands and he threw up his arms. Suddenly the zombies stopped, they shuffled backwards, their movements odd and reluctant. It was as if all of a sudden they didn't want to touch him, as if he'd suddenly become inedible.

Brad lowered his arms, unable to believe what had happened, he slowly got up seeing that he'd been saved. He put his hand to his heart, still beating furiously and he briefly prayed.

"Oh, thank you God." Then he turned round and screamed.

Behind him stood a very tall dark man. His pale complexion and hard stare frightened him almost as much the zombies.

"Hello?" Brad said meekly, attempting a friendly wave. The stranger didn't respond. He wore a long black coat that made his colourless face look even paler. His eyes were set in a constant dark stare. Brad felt the urge to run away from this person even though the only way out led back to the zombie horde.

"Bradley Vickers," the stranger addressed him. Brad shivered. He was worried about how this person knew his name, but it was also the way he said it. The voice was just as deep as Captain Wesker's, but there was an added level of hatred under the unemotional tone.

"Yeh, that's me…" Brad mumbled, "are you a survivor too?"

The black stranger took a step forward and Brad took a step back. It brought him closer to the zombies, still waiting but they didn't approach him. It seemed as if they wanted to avoid this new arrival as much as he did.

"So, you're trying to find your way back to the station as well?"

"No, I have come for you."

Brad swallowed.

"What do you mean by that?"

He could see as the man pulled out a black lined handgun from his coat pocket.

"Oh God please," he cried "…no."

One shot fired. Brad closed his eyes and thought of his hometown one last time. His body limply fell to the floor, offering no resistance to the bullet that passed through his chest.

The moment the body fell the zombies instantly swarmed over it desperately tearing it apart. Captain Black watched silently, another figure stepped out from the shadows and briefly stood watching with him.

"You know what you must do."

Brad nodded and walked forward, where he went the zombies avoided him. His eyes momentarily transfixed as the zombies__made quick work disposing of any evidence of the original body.

Captain Magenta had taken control of the patrols on the south part of Raccoon City, outside a series of storage houses. The effort wasn't going well, though it felt that they were slowly managing to push the zombies back. Magenta had set up a rota so half the squad could reload whilst the others continued to fire so a continuous series of gunfire could keep going, but with only four men per patrol it wasn't easy.

He kept firing, and then he saw someone rush round from the corner.

"There's a survivor!" he shouted, "Try to avoid any friendly fire."

The survivor was trying to make their way over the blockade, he fired a couple of shots and Magenta finally realised who it was.

"Rick," he shouted. Ochre looked up and finally realised his friend was at the blockade, he tried to shout his name back but couldn't be heard over the constant gunfire. The fire from the rifles was starting to clear a path through the zombies and Magenta pushed through and shot down the remaining zombies. They'd managed to beat back this horde but the RPD were already taking up positions ready to see off anymore approaching zombies. Magenta followed but went over to check on Ochre. A sense of relief came over his face when he saw he hadn't been bitten.

"Rick, you made it."

"Yeah, I thought I was lost there for a moment."

On the CCTV screens Annette watched the destruction of Raccoon City as it unfolded. She had watched the progress of Captain Ochre as he'd tried to make it back to civilisation. Her face showed a slight glare at seeing the Spectrum officer having actually succeeded. She reached forward and activated the controls on the keyboard, then she went back to watching the screens waiting to see the events unfold.

Behind them they heard the sound of the storage doors creaking open. Ochre went to check first. From the storage rooms several zombies staggered out, lurching side to side with each step.

Ochre called back to Magenta and fired off several shots, one of the zombies fell to the ground but too many were pouring out of the storage facility.

"There's nowhere we can run." The new zombies had cut off their escape and the only way forwards led to the infected streets further down. Ochre fired again but ran out of shots; his gun clicked.

"I'm empty," he said, one of the RPD officers swivelled round and tried to shoot them down, but they were surrounded on all sides.

Annette was alone in the lab attentively watching the CCTV screens when a dark suited figure appeared behind her.

"This is Captain Black, Spectrum are attempting to infiltrate the Umbrella laboratory. This cannot be allowed to happen. You know what you must do."

Annette got up from her chair and took the lift down towards the lab. She passed long rows of cylindrical tubes, each holding different experimental creatures. She came to the largest one, in it contained a creature of only barely recognisable human shape. A project labelled 'Nemesis' on the capsule side.

A square of fixed gnarling teeth stared out from the tube. She placed a small detonator on the creature's capsule, set the timer and calmly walked away. The container exploded, sending shards of glass flying across the lab. A pool of deep green liquid poured out onto the floor. The previously grand beast inside slumped to the floor in a charred heap.

Annette briefly turned back to view the destruction. When she turned back the same creature was looking down at her. It gave a low gruff growl.

"SPECTRUM!"

She looked up at it. A stream of tentacles ran through the creature's body, its skin seemed to be stretched and blistered as if it was never built to cover such a large size, the creature wore a long black trench coat which covered most of its body, from a distance it might have appeared human, but one of its eyes was missing, covered in large stitches, its remaining eye was blank white.

"Go to the city. You'll get your orders there." It obeyed and walked towards the lift. Annette continued back to the observation room, by the time she had reached her chair it was as if nothing had happened.

The west side of Raccoon City had been completely decimated by the attack. The streets were now deserted, windows broken and bags and bottles littered the street, hastily dropped by their owners in an attempt to quicken their escape. Off in the distance a car alarm could be heard endlessly barking but there was no one to attend it.

Only the undead stalked the streets, shuffling aimlessly, their movements held no sense of purpose now they'd finished all the prey here. Their sounds were a flat chorus of groans accompanied by slow monotonous footsteps. Those that had managed to find a food source were too deeply busy engrossed in an unsavoury act to grab every last morsel from the few bodies available.

One lone survivor burst through, their footsteps panicked and clumsy. The zombies slowly turned their heads, attracted towards the new source of food. Some didn't notice, too engorged in the meals they'd managed to find.

The closest ones reached out their arms to grab this new indulgence, but the survivor dodged their outreaching hands. The survivor was slim, nimble and driven by survival instinct.

She rushed towards the door of a building, left hanging slightly open. She ran in and quickly slammed it behind her. Hurriedly fastening the lock, she edged slowly backwards, outside she could still hear the zombies approaching the door, determined not to lose a good meal.

Something jabbed into her back, she turned round and let slip a quick scream. It was just a table. She put her hand to her heart and took several deep breaths. Claire looked around, seeing she'd walked into some sort of diner or coffee shop. Various meals and drinks were left unfinished and chairs had been hurriedly pushed aside. The décor was a horrible set of mis-matched pastel colours designed to look friendly and appealing but more had the effect of making any who looked upon it feel ill, but at least the fact that the lights were no longer working managed to dull down the horrid effect.

Claire pulled up one of the chairs and tried to relax, but when she tried all she could hear was the tremors from moans outside as the zombies banged their hands on the diner window, their shadows casting silhouettes onto the pulled down blinds. And the mass of them seemed to be increasing by the second.

She briefly considered pushing the table across to the window, but it didn't seem practical, there were too many windows and she didn't imagine it would be take too long for the zombies to break through. The best thing to do would be to get to a higher floor and see if she could get to the next building.

Then she heard some movement upstairs but this wasn't a slow stomp, it was a quick succession of running feet on wooden boards. Running? Someone must still be alive. She rushed up the stairs.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" she called, from down the corridor there came no reply. She crept down the length of the landing. Her footsteps agonisingly creaked with every step she took.

"I'm not going to hurt you or anything. And I'm not infected," she called, no reply came. Claire slowly approached the door. Her hand gripped on her knife just in case. She listened out, from inside one of the rooms she heard another small rustle come from behind a door. She slowly approached it, placed her back to the wall and reached for the door handle.

She pushed the handle down and let the door glide open. She looked over her shoulder and gazed into the room. No one was there.

She stepped in slowly scanning the darkly lit room. Something ran out from behind her; she broke into a run and headed off after the person who had escaped. She grabbed them, it was only a small child, who kicked and screamed as Claire pulled her back.

"Calm down! Easy!" she shouted, the girl still struggled but then her energy ran out and she fell limp in Claire's arms. Claire bent down and stroked her head. "Don't worry, it'll be ok now."

The little girl turned towards Claire then she tightly hugged her. She was still wearing a blue and white school uniform, short blonde hair pulled back in a pink hair band.

"What's your name?" Claire asked.

"I'm Sherry," the girl replied.

"My name's Claire."

From downstairs there was a crash of glass. Claire stood up grasping Sherry's hand.

"Oh no…" she whispered.

"What? What is it?"

"I think they've broken through," she said. "Come on! We need to go."

She led Sherry down the corridor, through the window outside she could see into the next building. Hopefully it wasn't too far a jump.

The hulking figure of Nemesis stalked the streets, even the zombies seemed to be afraid of it. It didn't attack them but most moved out of the way so to not disturb it.

At that moment something clumsily disturbed the rubble. A figure slid down the makeshift slope from all the fallen masonry and came out into plain view of Nemesis. It slowly stomped towards its new-found target.

The figure dusted himself off before impassively looking up at the giant monster. It stopped as they locked gazes.

"You know who I am," he said calmly. The creature nodded as much as its thick neck allowed. Brad Vickers stared up at the creature, his eyes flashed green.

"You will obey my instructions and do exactly as I say. Now come."

The helicopter swooped over the Arklay mountains, the mass maze of trees which made up the area surrounding Raccoon City rushed by below them. Scarlet looked down as they passed over a ranch house; there was a large open stable for horses. He remembered its location, that information might be useful later.

"We're coming up to the mountains Paul," he heard Rhapsody say over the loud mechanics of the helicopter.

"When we land you head back to Raccoon City, you'll be more use there. We'll contact you once we've found something," Scarlet said, she nodded back.

At the back Chris and the other STARS members made one final check on their equipment. Wesker sat cross-armed, staring out onto the wide landscape. Or, with the sunglasses covering his eyes, Scarlet thought, it was possible he'd gotten bored and fallen asleep.

The helicopter touched down and Scarlet's thoughts were dismissed when Wesker started barking orders at his comrades.

"Right! Everybody move out!" They all leaped out of the helicopter, Chris and Joe taking up forward positions, and headed over to the entrance leading downstairs. Jill and Wesker quickly followed. Scarlet jumped out, he signalled to Chris and Joe. They kicked open the door and descended down the stairs. The corridors seemed to be empty. Chris and Joe advanced in precise military steps, but the effort seemed wasted as the place was deserted.

Bravo team's helicopter had settled down a couple of blocks from the Umbrella laboratory. They'd seen from the aerial view that there were lots of zombies surrounding the area. They'd managed to find an empty spot where they were planning an alternative route to reach the facility.

Forrest was on point holding a sniper rifle. He only let out a shot when he needed to, every time he counted, making sure he could beat Chris's score. Richard was keeping guard along with him. The pilot Edward was sticking by the helicopter looking after a young girl called Rebecca Chambers. It struck Blue that she looked fantastically young to be in a military outfit. She had only just got a degree and was the group's medic, she didn't even have proper firearms training yet. Blue was with Enrico and Kenneth, crowded round a map they'd placed on the floor showing the surrounding area of the city.

"What options do we have?" Blue asked.

"There seems to be a secondary entrance to the facility. It's for loading transports, it's just outside the main body of the facility but it's a lot less crowded," Kenneth pointed out placing a dark skinned finger on the map to show where the loading base was.

From down the street they were interrupted by a terrified cry.

"Oh God! Somebody help me!" Everyone turned seeing Brad run out from the building. Behind him a large monster emerged, tearing down the doorway so it could get through.

"Christ!" someone exclaimed.

"Somebody shoot it!" Blue shouted, the team aimed their guns, but most were too scared of hitting Brad to fire.

"Brad! Get outta the way!" Kenneth shouted, Brad tripped over and the creature stopped in front of him. Kenneth rushed forward and pulled Brad out of the way. The creature brought its fists down on him, crushing him into the ground.

More shots fired off as it got closer.

"Everyone, find some cover!" Blue shouted.

"The helicopter has a rocket launcher. That might stop this thing," Enrico said.

"Well go get it!" Enrico followed Blue's orders. "Get the helicopter up in the air, away from that thing!"

Edward started the helicopter's motor. The creature turned, attracted by the sound. It picked up a girder in its bulky hands and threw it at the helicopter. It smashed through the windscreen into the pilot's seat, and the helicopter crashed over on its side. Enrico dropped the rocket launcher in the crash but jumped out from the cockpit. The creature was waiting outside and a tentacle extended from its hands, it drove it through Enrico's chest impaling him on the helicopter. It retracted its weapon and his body slipped to the ground.

It turned its head towards the remaining officers. It gave a low malevolent growl.

"SPECTRUM!"

It charged towards the Spectrum captain. Forrest hurriedly reloaded his sniper rifle and fired, hitting the creature in its remaining eye. It stopped and howled, blinded as blood ran down its eye.

Richard turned and shouted.

"Come on, we gotta get outta here."

The creature heard the sound of his voice and ran towards him, it clumsily reached forward and extended its hand. It grabbed Richard by his head, lifting up with such force it nearly broke his neck. He struggled, kicking in midair and trying to stop its grip from crushing his head.

A tentacle shot out from its hand and went straight through his mouth. His body hung still struggling for a moment before it flopped lifeless. The creature tossed him aside, already its eyesight had healed over.

Blue, Rebecca and Forrest were desperately running down the street, not entirely sure where they were heading but they needed to get away.

"Where's Brad?" Rebecca shouted.

"We must have left him behind." Rebecca turned round, Forrest grabbed her arm and wrenched her back. "There's nothing we can do now!"

They turned round the corner. There was an open sewer outlet, they all stopped at the thought of going down it.

"We don't have much choice," Blue shouted.

Forrest helped Rebecca to get down first. The Nemesis turned round the corner. Forrest turned to the Captain. "You escape. I'll hold it off."

Blue was going to protest, but Forrest already had his sniper rifle ready. Blue ran as fast as he could.

Down the hole Rebecca called to Forrest.

"Come on! You can still make it." He kept glancing back at the hole, contemplating what she said. He edged back towards the cover as the creature loomed over him, he panicked and couldn't hold the rifle steady. His shots kept missing or simply hitting its chest.

"Forrest! Come on!" Rebecca shouted, she grabbed the rung of the rail and went up to reach him. From up ahead she could hear as Forrest was grabbed and dragged away, she heard his screams echo down the hole, then they abruptly stopped.

"…Forrest?"

Then his body slumped over the entrance, his eyes staring vacantly down at her. She put her hands to her mouth. The last of the light above was blocked as the creature loomed over the manhole cover and looked down. She clung to the shadows, praying it hadn't seen her, but then it got up and passed on. She heard it stomp off, her legs felt shaky and she leaned back on the tunnel wall to support herself. She wondered if Captain Blue would be ok. But she couldn't go back up there now. She headed down the tunnel, wading in the murky water and tried to find another exit.

Chris pushed open the door and looked around, it was a drawing room of some sort, grandly decorated. A set of armchairs stood in a circle around the middle of the room, a set of ceiling-height bookcases lined the walls, all filled with thick old hardbacks. All the remaining walls were covered with antique guns set on display. At the far end of the room an ornamental fireplace took up half the wall with an engraved plaque over the top.

"Well there doesn't seem to be anyone here," Jill said; she still kept her gun trained for any movement. They cautiously entered the room. Chris was attracted to the large selection of guns on the walls.

"These are all in good condition," he noted, seeing how polished they were.

"Thank you Chris, I'm sure that knowledge will be of fantastic use," Wesker sighed.

"No, I mean they've all been maintained and polished." He took an elephant gun down from its display and examined it. "And quite recently too. That means someone must've been here to do it."

"So where is everyone?" Joe finished.

Scarlet took a repeater crossbow gun and examined it, Chris was definitely right.

"We'll have to split up to search efficiently. Wesker, Chris, Joseph; you head downstairs and see what you can find. Jill and I shall continue to search here for anything."

They all nodded, Wesker looked apprehensive.

"What about splitting into three? I can handle myself."

"No, I'd rather that nobody is left on their own."

"If you say so."

"If anything happens, we'll meet back here. There's only one exit so we know nothing else can get in either."

The two teams exited the room; neither Scarlet nor Chris seemed able to bring themselves to part with the new weapons they'd just picked up. The two teams went their separate ways heading down into the mansion.

Brad surveyed the remains of Bravo Team. He was pleased with the quick work Nemesis had made of them. He counted up the bodies, then his face grimaced.

"The Chambers girl and the Spectrum Captain have escaped." He addressed Nemesis, as the large bulking figure stood awaiting further orders.

"Head to the RPD blockade, make sure it fails. Kill any members of Spectrum you find."


	2. Chapter 2

Ochre and Magenta stalked the street, both keeping an eye out for zombies but Ochre had figured that they'd probably be back at the RPD cordons finding a larger supply of fresh meat.

They passed a couple of zombies that had been left behind, Magenta fired off a shot that went straight through the nearest zombie's head. Both were conservative about using their guns, they both knew they were running out of rounds. They seemed to be in one of the city's high streets, assorted clothes shops displaying the latest fashions were now left abandoned and street signs blinked on and off.

Magenta suddenly stopped, transfixed by one of the stores; it took Ochre a moment to realise his partner had stopped. He skidded and turned round.

"Pat?" he called, Magenta was looking very pleased about something.

Magenta pointed at the giant sign above the window: 'Kendo's Gun Shop'. With a large grin spread over his face, he announced, "I think it's time for a minor act of vandalism."

The window suddenly smashed and shattered spreading glass all over the shop floor and the street outside as a brick was hurled through it.

"That wasn't minor," Ochre said.

"We can apologise later," said Magenta as he climbed through the empty window, careful not to cut himself on any of the large spikes of glass sticking out.

Ochre waited, keeping guard for any signs of movement. He quickly glanced inside to see Magenta eyeing up all the various weapons.

"Here! You'll like this one!" Magenta called, he tossed out a shotgun. Ochre quickly reached out and caught it before it fell to the floor. "There's so much good stuff in here," he shouted from inside the store. Ochre leaned back on the door. He looked at the lock and turned the handle, to his surprise the door happily swung open, Ochre stepped in.

He saw Magenta trying to grab spare ammo for the shotgun, for himself he'd picked up a pair of semi-automatics. Ochre examined a sword hanging on display, he lifted it from its holding place out of curiosity and felt the weight of it in his hands. It was heavier than he expected but he could still hold it in one hand.

"Going for the close combat approach eh?" Magenta chided, he had found a bottle of wine and took it off the shelf, remembering the easy process for making a Molotov cocktail.

"I'm sure the owner won't be happy when he comes back," Ochre announced.

"Oh quit worrying, we could always pay him back later," Magenta said as he headed behind the counter to see if spare ammo for the semis was hidden somewhere by the owner. He stopped, seeing a body lying sprawled over the floor. "Umm… Rick?" he squeaked, then stooped over to examine the body. It wasn't moving and he reached out his hand about to poke the body for any signs of life.

The body suddenly jerked up and tried to bite Magenta's outstretched hand.

He quickly retreated and got up. The newly animated zombie grabbed his foot and tried to bite through the soles of his shoes.

Magenta kicked his foot forward and hit the zombie off. It pulled itself up to attack him again, Ochre levelled the shotgun and fired. The zombie's head exploded and the body fell limp to the ground. Magenta was left sprayed with a veneer of thick red paste.

"Well that got him," Ochre said. Then from upstairs they heard other creatures stirring, aroused by the sound of the gunshot. From the backroom came a horrible shuffling of slowly approaching steps. "We should get out of here," Ochre exclaimed, both he and Magenta ran for the exit as the zombies started to appear from all sides.

The RPD had been doing their best to keep the outbreak from spreading any further, but no matter how hard they tried there didn't seem to be an end to the mass of zombies.

One RPD officer left his post to relay to Captain Grey.

"Sir, they're starting to break through."

"But we only just put up this set of defences, we haven't had time to build anymore."

"That doesn't change the fact they'll be through any minute now."

Grey tried to think, they were running out of options. "Ok, send some men off to start making another barricade. Keep falling back as they start to get through."

"Yes sir." He rushed off to relay the orders to his comrades.

Grey started supervising the operation. There were no new developments from Scarlet, and Blue, Ochre and Magenta who had gone missing. With just him to organise the defences the effort had become disorganised. Reports on the radio kept shouting for new orders as they were slowly being pushed back.

"Barry! I need you to help set up these new defences," Grey shouted. Barry was the only remaining STARS member left following the disappearance of Bravo Team. They'd heard nothing from Blue for the last half hour. Something must have gone badly wrong. They both started to lift some boards to use for a new barricade when Barry stopped.

"I can hear something," Barry said, and Grey pulled out his gun. There was a noise coming from the buildings, something in the pipes.

"Keep going," he shouted, as he crept towards the large pipe outlet. He could hear something crawling inside. He kept his gun trained on the entrance; the echoes from inside were getting closer. A head poked itself out and when it saw the gun it quickly retreated back inside.

"Don't shoot!" it shouted, Grey lowered the gun and looked inside, it was a girl, Rebecca from Bravo team. He gave her his hand and helped her out as she stumbled to her feet.

"What are you doing here?"

"We got attacked, there was some giant monster that killed everyone."

_Great, that's all we need_, Grey thought. "Is there anybody else?"

"No, I'm the only one who made it out," she admitted.

"Do you know what happened to Captain Blue?"

"No, I think he might have escaped."

"We can only hope…" Grey looked at her, she didn't seem like she was quite fit to help put up defences. "You were Bravo team's medic weren't you?" She nodded. "We've got a lot of people who've been wounded. Do you think you're up for helping Dr. Fawn with treating anyone that's been injured?"

"Yes, I think so…"

"Ok then." He told her where the long line of medical tents had been set out, and headed back to the barricade. His thoughts were wondering about what had happened to Captain Blue.

Claire pulled back the curtain of the room slightly, looking out onto the street below. She sat perched on the windowsill. They'd stumbled into an apartment building and Claire had managed to bash down one of the doors. So now they were simply camping out, waiting for some sort of development. Claire was sure that if she listened out she could hear gunshots, but they were so far away and distorted she wasn't quite sure if that was really what she was hearing, or if her mind was beginning to create some false hope of a resistance. So far there hadn't been any signs of a rescue operation, and the streets outside were crawling with zombies. None of them had managed to catch on to where they were. Claire looked down at the screen on her mobile phone, the battery was slowly running out. She hadn't managed to reach Chris, guessing he must not be back yet. She'd not been able to reach the emergency services, either all the lines were busy or the power had been cut.

The light from outside cast streaking uncomfortable shadows onto the wall, distorting the landscape of the room, making it seem dangerous and unsettling. She couldn't relax or fall asleep even though fatigue crept through the muscles in her body. The apartment had previously belonged to a family, the walls were painted in soft warming covers and photos of a man, a woman and child had been hurriedly forgotten in a rushed attempt to escape.

She looked at Sherry, who was lying on the sofa. They'd found some spare sheets in the bedroom and spread them over the sofa. None of them felt comfortable at sleeping in a possible dead person's bed. Claire had been lying next to Sherry, but a constant nagging had prompted her to get up and check the world outside.

"Claire?" A weak voice called to her. Claire got up seeing that Sherry was worried about her sudden disappearance.

"I'm right here." She sat back on the sofa and comforted her.

"I can't sleep," Sherry said from under the warmth of her sheets.

"I know…" Claire replied. She stood up and headed to the kitchen "Maybe we can get a glass of milk or something?"

She opened the fridge, and was surprised to find it still full, apparently no one had thought to take food supplies when they had vacated their house. She poured out a glass of milk for Sherry but was looking for something a bit stronger for herself. She cast another glance outside the window, it seemed that was becoming a bit of a habit. But this time she could see some movement. Someone was running down the streets, she rushed back into the living room and forced the window open.

"Over here!" she shouted, waving to the figure. "There's a fire exit round the side."

She headed to the door. Sherry got up from the sofa.

"Claire?"

"Stay there Sherry, I'll be back in a minute." And she disappeared down the corridor. She reached the end of the hall and opened the door. A sudden rush of cold air waved over her as she looked down the balcony. She lowered the ladder and the figure leaped and grabbed hold of it, several of the zombies following reached for him. Claire lowered herself as much as she could and tried to kick the zombies off. The person raised themselves up onto the platform and they both reached for the ladder and pulled it back up, stopping any other zombies from climbing up after them. The figure collapsed on the balcony and tried to regain his breath. Claire looked and saw he was a blue uniformed officer with blonde hair. Claire helped him get to his feet and led him up the stairway. They headed back to the apartment.

"What are you, part of the police force?" she asked.

"No," he panted, "I'm part of Spectrum, my name's Captain Blue."

"I'm Claire and this is Sherry," she introduced herself when they entered the apartment. Captain Blue gave a friendly nod and Claire went over to check the window again. "Now they know we're here it's probably not safe to stay too long." She turned back to the Captain. "Do you know a place we can get to?"

"No, I was separated from my team. I got lost, I probably wouldn't have made it if you hadn't found me."

"What were you doing in amongst those things?"

"We were trying to infiltrate the Umbrella laboratory. We think the answer to this infestation might lie there, but on our way we got attacked. Do you know where it is?"

"No, I don't know my way around at all, I came here hoping to meet my brother, but now…"

"I know where the lab is," Sherry interrupted.

"You do?" Blue asked.

"Yes, my mommy and daddy work there."

"Do you think you can show us the way?"

"I think so…"

Claire crouched down to her.

"If we go there, we might be able to see your mommy and daddy again."

Sherry nodded.

"Yes, I can show you how to get there."

Scarlet and Jill headed down the corridor. They could hear shuffling footsteps but couldn't tell where from. They both advanced cautiously, there was something standing by the end of the corridor.

One of the zombies hovered by the stairs, it hadn't spotted them yet. Jill was unsure whether to fire in case it attracted more of them. Scarlet aimed the crossbow and fired a bolt at its head. It silently flew through the air and lodged itself in its chest. The zombie looked down and grunted at the arrow sticking out of it, slowly turning to see where it had come from. This time the bolt went through its head and it fell in a heap on the floor.

Scarlet and Jill continued on, at the top of the stairs they heard three more of them milling around.

"There must have been an outbreak here too," Jill whispered.

"Let's try another route," Scarlet suggested. They headed towards a door and Jill pulled out a lock pick, using it with an expert hand. The lock clicked open and they were able to enter the room.

It was some sort of office, inside was an empty desk a couple of personal photos placed around it in order to brighten up the gloomy spirit of the room. It was strewn with different research papers, all related to unusual scientific processes.

"We might find something here," Scarlet suggested and they both started to go through the files. Jill found a couple of notes and diary entries but nothing that really helped. She picked up a large brown envelope that hadn't been opened. She tore into it to see what was inside. Two electronic cards fell out onto the table. She examined the letter that lined the wall of the envelope, skimming through its contents to get to the important part of the information;

In this we enclose the new updated key card to access the lower mansion's laboratory. A spare has also been included should this one be lost. Please put it in a safe place where no one can find…

"Scarlet, I've found something."

"What?"

She held up the cards. "It seems these can get us into some lab somewhere here in this mansion."

She gave one of them to him.

"There might be blueprints of this mansion somewhere in this office. Let's see if we can find any," Scarlet suggested.

Jill nodded and went to check the drawers while Captain Scarlet finished checking the files on the desk. He came across something held in a blue file, _Tyrant-virus final research notes_.

He flicked through all the pages, filled with complex medical schematics.

"This is it," Scarlet realised, "this is all the research on that virus."

His cap microphone dropped from its place.

"Captain Scarlet?"

"Dr. Fawn, we have some new information for you."

At Raccoon City a makeshift line of medical tents had been set up to treat any wounded. Dr. Fawn was helping supervise the operation along with Dr. Klein, the scientist Scarlet and Alpha team had rescued, both were trying to find any way to cure the virus. Fawn's epaulettes flashed red and he put his cap back on to hear what his comrade had to say.

"Captain Scarlet?"

"Dr. Fawn, we have some new information for you. We have all the finished research notes for the virus."

"That's brilliant, if you can read the information out to me I might be able to start work on an vaccine."

Scarlet flicked through the pages finding the chapter where the data on the construction of the virus started. He began reading aloud the information on the page. He could imagine Dr. Fawn going over the notes in his head, trying to make sense of it all.

Annette stood in the Umbrella laboratory's weapons testing room. This one held conventional weapons as opposed to biological ones and the room had always stuck out from the rest of the facility. On mounted shelves were different types of experimental guns, bulky heavy instruments of death. Different rounds lay in a display on the workbench. Standard rounds, smoke rounds, and then the more vicious types: incendiary, acidic and explosive. But these all lay undisturbed looking forgotten and rejected as Annette was busying herself with something much smaller but just as deadly.

On her arm she strapped a brace, a small device placed just under her hand, holding a small hypodermic syringe. She flicked her wrist back and the needle sprang out from its hiding place. Satisfied at its performance she slowly pushed the needle back into its concealed position, the small amount of G-virus washing around inside.

She pulled up her sleeve and the device completely disappeared under the folds of her lab coat.

Blue peered round the corner, in the distance he could see the Umbrella laboratory, but the same crowd of zombies he'd spotted when he was with Bravo Team were still crowding round the facility, the ones which hadn't moved on much further since the outbreak started.

"How are we going to get in there?" Claire asked. Blue pointed to another smaller building.

"According to our reconnaissance that way also acts as another entrance to the lab. It's not as crowded as the main entrance." He turned round to face them. "I'll go in first and draw the creatures' attention. You two try to get straight to the lab."

Claire nodded, and picked up Sherry. Blue took one last look around the corner before they headed out.

"Ok… go!"

They both ran, Blue fired at the zombies dropping as many as he could. He took a stance and fired as Claire ran past heading to the door. Some of the zombies still followed her, she pulled her knife and stabbed one in the head. Her knife was lodged so she kicked the zombie off and it fell back onto the other ones crowding around her. She ran towards the door, shouldered into it finding it closed. She reached for the handle, but it was locked.

"Dammit!" Claire shouted. Sherry wriggled out of her grasp.

"I can open it." Sherry took off a necklace and placed it in a concealed slot in the door, it started to open and Claire pushed Sherry in.

"Captain! Come on!" she shouted back. Blue was slowly being surrounded, though he managed to keep his distance as he paced over to the door, not noticing as one zombie came behind him and bit into his arm. Blue screamed and fired a shot straight at the zombie's head. He clutched his arm as he headed back to Claire. He went through the door into the facility and Claire shut the door behind him.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine." He examined the wound. It was a vicious bite which went deeper than he previously thought. "Just a scratch."

Blue led the way down the corridor, Claire keeping a watch on Sherry. They entered onto a large gantry way overlooking the main laboratory. Below they could see the broken capsules and several zombies, most of them dressed in ragged lab coats, wandering around the lab.

Ahead of them someone cautiously stepped out of the shadows. Blue trained his gun on the person approaching them.

"Oh thank God you're here!" she called, Blue could see it was a woman dressed in a lab coat, with short blonde hair. "Something terrible happened."

"What happened?" Blue asked as she walked closer towards, he lowered his gun but still didn't feel comfortable enough to put it away just yet.

The woman almost trembled as she related the events.

"I'm not sure, all the systems malfunctioned and all the experiments were released… oh my God … they killed everyone!"

"Mommy?" a small voice interrupted.

"Oh Sherry!" She looked down and finally noticed the small figure hiding behind Claire. She bent down and hugged her daughter. "I'm so glad you're ok."

"I missed you mommy…"

"Do you know exactly what happened to cause the outbreak?" Blue asked. Annette thought for a moment.

"All the laboratory's systems are operated from the central control room. But it's been locked since the start of the outbreak, I think my husband was in there."

"Right, we better get up there and see if we can gain access to it," Blue announced. He led the way down the gantry. Annette got up and directed them, Sherry hung onto her hand. She immediately began telling her mother about everything that had happened to her, she seemed so excited by the sudden emergence of her mother that she spoke at breakneck speed and it was quite hard to tell what she was actually saying.

Claire followed behind, glad that in all this madness she'd at least managed to make one happy ending possible, though there was a part of her which couldn't help but feel disturbed by the slightly vacant expression in Annette's eyes. Didn't she care that her daughter was safe? Maybe after everything that had happened she was caught in a state of disbelief, it all hadn't quite registered yet.

Annette put her hand on Sherry's shoulder and something disturbed Claire, there was a small, almost inaudible _snikt_, and she briefly saw something in Annette's hands.

"Captain Blue!" she shouted as she reached forward and pulled Sherry away from her mother.

The Spectrum Captain turned round just as Annette pulled a gun on him. She shot off a few rounds as he ducked for cover.

Whilst she was busy with Captain Blue, Claire had grabbed Sherry's arm and quickly ran away from the firefight.

Annette turned briefly to see Claire and Sherry run off, she'd deal with them in just a second. For now she turned her attention back to Captain Blue.

He fired a couple of shots at her from his own handgun, he kept low, trying to move further down the walkway. At the moment he was too exposed, Annette's shots nearly hit him as he dived for cover again. Blue headed off to the corner and clung to the shadows, he kept as still as he could.

"You can't escape, Spectrum!" Annette cried out. Her eyes scanned the dark hallway, searching for any sense of movement. She briefly ducked under a set of the pipes that came down low from the ceiling.

Blue slowly raised his gun, aiming for the pipes above her head. He fired one shot and the pipeline burst, spraying Annette with a cloud of hot steam. She screamed and Blue made his getaway, she briefly saw him passing, and fired a few random shots. They all missed their target. Annette got up, a look of frustration strewn across her face, but it soon disappeared. Now the Spectrum officer had gone Annette turned back up the gantry way, and headed in pursuit of Claire and her daughter.

Claire desperately rushed towards the exit, she could just about see the stairway in the low light.

"Claire! Slow down!" Sherry shouted. Claire knew the seven year old couldn't keep up with her pace, but she couldn't slow down. Not when she started to hear the gunshots fly past her head.

"What's wrong with mommy?" Sherry cried. Claire had already guessed. She must be one of those things Blue mentioned, but how was she going to tell Sherry that her mother was just some empty vessel?

They reached the stairs to the fire exit, she could feel them shake under her footsteps. Several bolts came loose as they endured the battering having not been used for months.

Suddenly one of the stairs came loose and Sherry slipped out of Claire's grasp. She turned and reached for her.

"Sherry!" she called. Another shot whizzed past her head and she crawled up the stairs to hide behind one of the beams limply holding the stairs up.

Annette slowly approached Sherry, her gun held ready.

"Mommy? What's wrong with you?" Sherry's voice shook, and tears fell down her face. She couldn't understand the transformation that had overcome her mother. Annette stared down at her and put the gun to her head.

"Mommy…?"

She pulled the trigger; just as she did Blue pushed Sherry out of the way. The force of the bullet sent him flying back. He lay on the floor, clutching the bullet wound in his shoulder. Annette walked over to him, her eyes filled with hatred for the Spectrum officer.

"You're already infected but the G-virus is much different from the T-virus, we haven't able to stabilise its reactions yet." She brandished the needle on her arm and reached over to inject him. "It would be interesting to see what sort of mutation it could provoke in you."

Claire jumped down from the stairway and slammed into Annette. The two rolled across the floor, Claire's back slammed into the walkway railings. She gave out a quick groan then realised Annette was holding the needle above her chest. Claire grabbed her hand and tried to push her back. But the Mysteron slowly pushed further and further down.

Annette was pulled back by Blue, he threw the Mysteron agent against the wall, and pointed his handgun at her chest. He panted heavily, feeling a twinge of pain in his shoulder. He glanced at Sherry and became uncertain as to whether he could pull the trigger.

Annette simply laughed.

"It doesn't matter anyway. Before you arrived here I set the system's self-destruct sequence."

"What?" Blue gasped.

"The virus has already infected the city, your efforts have failed. The destruction of Raccoon City is assured."

Blue stared in disbelief, he simply threw the Mysteron to the floor and Claire ran to his side.

"We've got to get out of here!" he shouted, he led the charge as they hastily headed towards the exit.

They all ran as fast as they could. Now warning lights and klaxons were going off over their heads. Blue could see the exit up just ahead. The blast doors were starting to close. He reached forward and pushed them open as much as he could, Sherry ran through.

Claire had nearly reached the door when Annette grabbed her hair and pulled her back. Blue let go of the doors and rushed towards Claire. He grabbed Annette and pushed her off Claire, they squeezed through as the doors closed. Blue saw the Mysteron try to reach them just as the doors slammed shut.

The doors slammed in Annette's face. She halted, she had failed. She turned round and rested on the door. Around her the lab had collapsed into a state of chaos as the final countdown for the self-destruct had begun.

'Self destruct sequence in two minutes'

She slowly walked back to the observation deck, Williams body was waiting for her when she arrived. She walked over to the body and sat beside it. The CCTV screens flicked off one by one replaced by constant static, the white noise became louder to her than the warning lights that kept going off, becoming louder and more frantic as the countdown narrowed.

'Self destruct sequence in one minute'

She stared forward at the floor, curled up in a little ball.

'Self destruct sequence in thirty seconds'

She turned towards William, she hadn't seen him so calm in months. The muscles in his body had relaxed and the look of anguish that had been strewn across his face when he died had finally disappeared.

"Ten… nine…eight…'

She reached her hand towards his, wrapping them together one last time.

From across the other side of town Captain Ochre and Captain Magenta heard the explosion.

"What was that?" Magenta asked.

"Don't know, but I'm willing to bet one of our guys had something to do with it."

They were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps echoing from an alleyway. They were constant enough not to be a zombie, but too large to be human, as if someone was wearing a pair of Doc Martins with five inch steel soles.

Captain Ochre looked out from beyond the cover, seeing a giant creature step out of the alleyway. He quickly pulled back hoping it hadn't seen him.

"What is it?" Magenta asked.

"Something really big," Ochre said. Magenta went to take a peek and Ochre pulled him back, "It's heading towards the RPD cordon. If that thing gets there there's no way they could fight it off."

"We've got to do something," Magenta whispered; he looked thoughtful for a second then suddenly proclaimed, "Wait! I've got an idea!"

He jumped out of the cover into plain view of the Nemesis.

"What are you doing?" Ochre shouted.

"You head back to the outpost! I'll keep him busy," Magenta shouted back.

He ran towards the giant monster waving his arms.

"HEY! Over here!" The creature made a low growling sound and ran after him.

Captain Magenta ran back, he was glad that even if this thing was powerful at least it was quite thick. The two of them disappeared off into the city streets.

Ochre stared in disbelief, he stood up and gripped the shotgun. He ran back towards the outpost. _Good luck_, he thought, though he wasn't quite sure what to make of his friend's stupidity.

For the last few hours Colonel White had been reviewing the progress of Raccoon City. The large screen gave him the best view of how the defence was going, he could see how the forces were slowly being pushed back. Lieutenant Green had been reviewing the radio messages, most of them were panicked and painted a picture of a city falling into chaos.

It seemed the problem with this enemy was that there didn't have to be many of them to quickly spread, they'd had lots of patrols suddenly dropping off the map completely just after they'd reported in with a single member being bitten.

"Lieutenant Green, see if you can contact the Umbrella Corporation, they must have prepared something for an eventuality like this."

Colonel White continued looking through the various reports that had come in, following Blue, Magenta and Ochre's disappearance in the city. The effort had slowly become more disorganised and the RPD forces were slowly being whittled down. There had been some vague reports about the state of the Umbrella complex in the heart of the city, but there hadn't been any solid confirmation of its fate.

"Anything to report?" White turned back to Green.

"Just one thing." Green checked through the computer printout. "The corporation set up an organisation called the 'Biohazard Countermeasure Service', it seems they're most likely to know how to combat this sort of threat."

"Get a line with them Lieutenant," White announced, "the forces in the city need all the help they can get."

Chris pushed open the door, and they found themselves in the main hall of the mansion. From the top floor Chris could see the main entrance, a set of old oak panelled doors, from the entrance following all the way up the stairs a long red carpet was laid out. As they descended the stairs Chris surveyed the hall, there were two doors on either side of the hall as well as the main entrance.

"Damn, this place is huge," Joseph complained.

"We'll split up, you two take the east wing, I'll take the west," Wesker ordered.

"What about Scarlet's orders?" Chris reminded him.

"We'll never be able to search the whole mansion with all three of us sticking together, this will be more efficient."

"If you say so."

Wesker headed to a set of blue double doors on the right side. Chris and Joe took the door on the left, they continued down the corridor to a miniature gallery. Scenic pictures hung in frames and in the middle of the room there was a large marble statue of a woman holding a vase.

"Well nothing here," Chris noted. Joseph went to check behind a curtain that led to a small storage room.

He peeked inside; there was a body on sprawled on the floor. As Joseph looked at it the body started to get up and crawl towards him. He retreated out and shut the curtain.

"Find anything?" Chris asked.

"Nope, let's move on."

There was another exit. Chris opened the door and went through first; it led to an empty hallway with a long set of windows that allowed them to see outside the mansion. They both crept along, still on edge. Chris headed towards the door at the end of the corridor. Joseph went to examine the windows, he could hardly see outside, squinting he pressed his face to the glass.

"Hey, I think I can see something moving." That thing burst through the windows and leapt on top of Joseph. He screamed as a set of savage teeth and claws dug into his body.

Chris turned round at the screaming; he saw a dog, a large Doberman attacking Joseph. Large shards of glass stuck out of its body but it didn't seem to care. He fired his gun but it ran out of bullets and disappointingly clicked. He ran over to Joseph when two more dogs burst through the window, one joined in with ripping Joseph apart, the other seemed more happy with the idea of having Chris to itself.

He shuffled backwards, reaching for the door somewhere behind him, but keeping his eyes on the zombie dog.

In the file room Jill and Scarlet had heard a set of screams, they both turned round.

"What was that?"

"It sounded like Joseph," Jill said, she edged towards the door.

"I'll go." Scarlet stepped forward. "Stay here and finish relaying all the virus information to Dr. Fawn."

He took off his cap and passed it to her, she nodded and took off her beret. She found Scarlet's cap a bit too big, but she started to pick up from where Scarlet had left off.

Scarlet grabbed the crossbow as he went past and headed out into the mansion.

At the Spectrum barricade the gunfire hadn't stopped. The police were tired but they kept going, they knew the consequences of what would happen if they stopped. The zombies had already managed to break through several barricades and now the RPD were hastily trying to put up barricades made of anything: boxes, old wooden panels, so long as the zombies didn't get through.

"Conserve your ammo!" Captain Grey shouted, aiming his handgun and managing to shoot one approaching zombie in the head. "Make every shot count."

He fired another shot, missed and aimed again. All the shots were getting sloppy, the forces were too highly strung out. They'd been defending these posts for hours on end. And the wave of zombies never seemed to stop, it was the sheer weight of their numbers that had destroyed the barricades and pushed them back so far.

"Cloudbase to Captain Grey." A call came through.

"Grey here."

"How's the effort going Captain?"

"Not too good Colonel, we keep getting pushed back but we can't seem to make a dent in them."

"Reinforcements will be arriving to help you any minute."

"SIG." No sooner had his cap microphone gone back into place than a helicopter swooped over his head. The sight of the Umbrella logo on the side made him slightly worried.

A band of soldiers began descended from the helicopters, dark coloured military vests. They were a mix-matched set of men, their faces chiselled and hardened; they looked more like mercenaries than a proper military service.

"Who are you?" Grey asked as one of the soldiers stepped out of the helicopter. The newcomer spoke with a thick South American accent.

"My name's Carlos, we're the Umbrella Bio-hazard Containment Service, here to help."

"What took you so long?"

"None of our operatives in the city bothered to phone and ask us for assistance."

"That's probably because they're all dead."

"Yeah, that would probably do it." Grey couldn't quite believe this man was in command; he was far too casual to be in a position of authority.

"I'm in charge of this squad." A Russian officer stepped forward. "Your Colonel was very persuasive with our superiors. He says that we are all to follow your orders."

"We need as many squads as you can get to start fighting back against these zombies."

The Russian officer started barking orders to his troops who reluctantly obeyed.

"Everybody get into positions! Prepare to repel hostiles!"

Scarlet headed down the stairway to the mansion's main hall. He looked at the set of doors on either side and decided to follow the way to the east, that seemed to be the direction the scream had come from.

He rushed through the corridors, coming to the gallery. He could hear crunching and chewing sounds coming from the other side of the door. He slowly reached for the handle, his hand hovering over his gun. When he opened the door several of the dogs turned and leaped at the chance of fresh meat. Scarlet hurriedly slammed the door as he heard one of the dogs slam against it.

Wesker appeared and fired several rounds through the door, they heard a yelp and one of the dogs thumped to the floor, though another one was scratching at the door.

"What happened?" Wesker asked.

"Those things got Joseph."

"What about Chris?"

"I don't know." Scarlet stood up, "Where did those things come from?"

"They must have been guard dogs that got infected."

"There must be more of them outside." The thought worried Scarlet, they left and headed back to the hall. When they entered Scarlet turned to confront Wesker.

"Where were you?"

"I was checking the rest of the mansion when I heard the noise."

"This is precisely why I ordered you to stay together."

"I thought we'd find out more if we split up."

"And now at least one of your team members is dead."

"But I did manage to find something."

Scarlet looked at him. "What?"

"Come, I'll show you. I think you'll find it quite interesting."

Wesker led the way through the double blue doors on the other side into the dining room, and continued to lead him down a long stretch of corridors.

Leon crawled out of the building's remains. He'd seen some movement a while ago and had been doggedly trying to reach any other survivors.

But when he got there all he found was a set of burning remains. Around the broken helicopter were the remains of several bodies, most of them bent and twisted in unnatural positions. He tried to avoid them and walked over to the helicopter to see if he could salvage anything.

He reached into the cockpit, several ammo boxes and med-packs were held in the helicopter. A lot of them had been damaged in the explosion, but he managed to find several first aid sprays and some bullets for his handgun.

Behind him some of the bodies started to stir as a spark of life entered them once more. The faceless body of Richard Aiken pulled himself up, alerted to the sound of the police officer rummaging through the helicopter. Kenneth started to crawl towards him; his spine was broken and he had to drag his body. Enrico the Captain led the charge, being the closest to the helicopter.

Leon looked around a little more, noticing something rather big propped up against the helicopter wall. He reached for it and picked out the rocket launcher. He slung it over his shoulder.

He turned round to leave and was alerted to the presence of the zombies; he pulled out his handgun deciding the rocket launcher would be a bit too much. He shot at them but the body armour deflected the shots and they carried on, desperate to reach him. He gave up, placing the gun back in its holster and, pulling the rocket launcher round, he charged, bashing Richard down with it.

The zombies only staggered at the attack, somehow these ones were tougher, more determined. They crowded around Leon. The captain reached for him and he swung the launcher at his face, but he'd forgotten about Kenneth, who had finally reached him. It grabbed Leon's foot and started to bite through his soles. He kicked desperately to get it off though the others were ready again to attack.

"Move out of the way!" someone shouted. Leon saw a man in a bright pink uniform sprinting towards him. Leon brought the rocket launcher down on Kenneth's head and it finally let go. As Richard and Enrico reached out for him he ducked in between them. The pink man ran past the zombies and a giant creature in a black trench coat stomped after him, crushing Kenneth's head under its boot. It threw its arm out at Richard and Enrico, sending them flying. Their spines crushed as they collided with a stone wall.

The pink man rushed down the street and the creature followed after him. Leon stood in amongst the remains, trying to figure out what had just happened.

The effort to stop the zombies was finally showing some improvement; the UBCS troops had brought lots of heavy artillery with them and had quickly gone about dispatching the zombies. Grey had been coordinating the movements along with the UBCS commander. But ahead of them were still hordes of zombies eager to get through.

"Sir, I can see a survivor," one of the RPD sentries called.

"What, in amongst all that?" Grey asked.

"Yes sir."

"Well they're on their own. There's no way we can get a rescue force in there."

"He's Spectrum, sir."

"What?" he shouted.

"He seems to be doing quite well on his own, sir." Grey looked over the makeshift barricade, it was Ochre. The zombies were starting to crowd around him having realised a more immediate food source was available. However there was quite a wide circle around him.

Ochre fired the shotgun at the nearest set of zombies, then pulled his sword out from his belt and started cutting at them, a set of clear swings managing to decapitate several at a time. He held the shotgun in one hand and fired again, blowing the heads off two zombies at the same time. He put away the sword and hurriedly reloaded the shotgun. One zombie came up from behind and grabbed him by the shoulders. Ochre fell back splitting the zombie's head open on the sidewalk.

Some zombies lurched forward thinking that their prize would be easier to obtain now it was off balance, but Ochre had finished reloading the shotgun. He fired again and the blast blew the legs off several more. He got up barging past the zombies that tried to grab him.

He headed towards the barricade, leaping onto an upturned car and jumping onto a fire escape from one of the surrounding buildings. He made his way down into the street past the fortifications where Grey was leading the RPD.

"Rick! You son of a gun!" Grey called.

"Brad, good to see you too!" he replied patting him on the shoulder.

"What's going on? Where's Pat?"

"…I think he's doing ok," Ochre replied.

"Any sign of Blue?"

"No, what about Scarlet and Alpha team?"

"We've heard nothing from them," Grey said solemnly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be fine," Ochre said. "Right now we've got bigger things to worry about."

"There seems to be something through here." Wesker pointed to a steel headed door, it didn't match the layout of the archaic mansion one bit. The door was sealed but a card reader was positioned on the side.

Scarlet pulled out the card from his pocket and looked at the lock; he slowly ran the card down the side of the reader and a little light on the top flashed green. The locks hissed open.

"Shall we go in?" Wesker suggested. Scarlet wasn't sure, those doors had probably been closed for a reason, but Wesker ventured forth and pushed it open. It was some sort of lab, too small to be the main lab for the centre of the operations, although different capsules seemed to suggest it was more of a containment area.

Captain Scarlet looked at the gantry way above him, and could have sworn he heard some movement coming from there. But his attention was diverted to the sounds coming from further down the room. Different from the moans of the zombies, these were high-pitched shrieks like some sort of violent animal. And they grew louder and more excited with every step the two took towards them.

"Not scared are you Captain?" Wesker asked. He carried on a few steps ahead of him from where he'd stopped to check the noise from the gantry way.

"No, it's not that."

The walls seemed to be lined with cages, big enough to fit a person but it seemed to have previously held some other type of occupant. Wesker had found a control panel, he pushed a button and the room was illuminated. Scarlet could now see the creatures that were held in the cages. Giant lizard like creatures as large as him, with curved arched backs, a long set of claws extending from each of their fingers.

"What are these things?" The Captain looked into the cages of the strange beasts.

"They're called Hunters," Wesker replied, a thin smile spreading across his face, "they're designed to be the ultimate killers. Fast, agile, completely different from those shuffling failed experiments we've met so far."

"You seem to know an awful lot about them." Scarlet turned to face him. Wesker turned his head round. The green lighting from the incubation tubes made his face look oddly sick. He lowered his glasses and for just a moment, Scarlet could swear his eyes looked red.

"I wonder what would happen if we let them loose about the place?" He reached over to the lock of the creatures' cages.

"What are you doing?" Scarlet called out. Wesker slid the lock open; immediately one of the creatures lunged at him, driving its long claws straight through his body and lifting him up off his feet as blood spilled from his mouth. Scarlet pulled out his crossbow and a bolt went clean through the first Hunter's skull. But instantaneously there was another one to take its place. He narrowly avoided injury as the creature tore at his throat, leaving a deep gouge in the wall where it struck. He levelled his bow again and fired wildly, hitting the Hunter but the arrows didn't drive in far enough to kill it. It reached its claws forward and drove them into Captain Scarlet's chest. He gasped as the air left his body. He reached forward and shot it square in the head. They both slumped to the floor at the same time.

Captain Magenta quickly learned that despite the Nemesis's big bulk and size, it was surprisingly fast. It had managed to keep pace with him and nearly caught him a few times. Luckily there was an advantage to being smaller__and able to fit through holes and doorways the creature couldn't, even if it did usually just knock them down after he'd gone through.

Magenta ran into a large industrial building and pushed open the doors to find an abandoned factory; there were lots of conveyor belts and stairs leading to different routes and levels. Perfect.

He ran up the stairs until he reached a position where the creature shouldn't be able to find when it followed.

Magenta crouched down and pulled out a lighter, desperately trying to light the Molotov; a brief spark would light then flick out of existence.

"Come on, come on, come on…"

The paper finally caught light.

"Yes!"

Then Nemesis grabbed his head and slowly lifted him up. Magenta dropped the makeshift bomb and kicked out, trying to get free. On the creature's hand he saw a tentacle start to slither out from under its skin.

Then someone rushed over and threw the Molotov at Nemesis's head. It burst into flames letting out a low pained roar, dropping the Spectrum officer unexpectedly to the floor.

"Come on! Get up!" Someone tugged him by his uniform; he scrambled to his feet and followed someone in a blue uniform with blonde hair.

"Captain Blue?" The person turned round, he was much younger than Blue and his hair was a lot longer. It wasn't a Spectrum uniform he was wearing; it was an RPD uniform.

"No, my name's Leon." They both ran down the stairs trying to get away from the Nemesis monster. They could hear its footsteps clunking on the rails behind them.

"So, who are you, Captain Bright Pink?"

"I'm Captain Magenta."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

They both hid behind one of the large machines, the Nemesis surveyed its surroundings, it seemed to lose interest in them and walked back onto the streets.

"Where's it going?" Leon whispered.

"It's following its original goal. It's going to the RPD cordon to stop any resistance."

"We've got to stop it," Leon said. Magenta picked up his twin semis.

"Right, let's go."

Chris was on the gantry way, he saw Captain Scarlet fighting off one of the creatures. There were still two more of them left; he crouched down and levelled the rifle, hitting another one right between the eyes. The last one shrieked and was alerted to where the gunshot had been fired. In one bound it leaped up onto the gantry way, landing a few feet away from Chris. He stumbled backwards surprised by its speed. He hurriedly tried to reload the rifle, but the cartridge slipped from his hands. He reached out for more in his pocket and loaded it in, the Hunter screamed and leaped towards him. He fired just as the creature was above him. It fell limp on top of him and he struggled to push it off. It fell over the side with a large thump.

Chris jumped down from the gantry way, landing on the body of one of the fallen Hunters. It wasn't exactly the softest thing to land on but it was still better than the metal floor. He didn't hold any hope for the Spectrum Officer. He'd arrived just in time to see the Captain get attacked by the creatures. He already knew there was no way he could have survived. He went over to check on Wesker.

"Albert?" He had always hated it when he was called by his first name. The captain's glasses had fallen off and his eyes had rolled up under his eyelids. Chris had just realised the severity of Wesker's wound, the claw had driven in even deeper than Scarlet's. Chris slowly got up, he hadn't been able to save either of them. The only thing he could do now was to find Jill and escape with her.

"Are you alright?" Chris turned round with a start. He was amazed to see Scarlet slowly getting up onto his feet.

"You're alive?" The words came out of his mouth, failing to hide his disbelief.

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch." The Captain smiled, a very fake artificial smile that he'd forced upon himself, trying to hide how much the Hunter's attack still hurt. It would still be a while before he recovered completely. He forced himself to get up; the baffled expression still hadn't left Chris's face.

Ochre was ordering the UBCS and the RPD into various positions.

"Take any of the heavy artillery you can find!" he kept on shouting, while examining all the weapons the UBCS had brought with them. Rifles, automatics, sub-machine guns, but he didn't feel any of them would be good enough.

"You sure this isn't all a bit much?" Captain Grey asked.

"I know it's not." Ochre stopped and filled his shotgun with ammo until it was completely full. "I've seen what it looks like, I know even this isn't going to stop it. We either need something really big or we need to completely bombard it."

Ochre took a place up with the UBCS and RPD on sentry, waiting by the barricade and checking their new weapons. Occasionally one would fire off a shot at an approaching zombie, but with the combined efforts of the UBCS they'd managed to beat back the worst of the infestation.

"Sir, we have a visual," a Russian UBCS officer shouted. Ochre came over to look. Approaching the cordon from the city streets was a large figure draped in black. Even from this far away Ochre could make out it wasn't completely human.

"Everybody get ready! Open fire on my mark!" He levelled his own shotgun. A heavy silence fell over the forces as they all watched the creature through their gun scopes, waiting for it to get closer.

It broke out into a run, Ochre gave the order.

"Open fire!" A barrage of gunfire opened up, the bullets seemed to lodge themselves in the creature's body but it wasn't affected.

"Grenades!" The UBCS mercenaries chucked a line of grenades but Nemesis just walked through the explosions, only its trench coat was slightly singed.

"Damn!" Ochre muttered. "Fall back!"

The officers hurriedly got up but the creature had reached the blockade, it broke down the makeshift walls and started dispatching any officers that hadn't managed to get clear.

Ochre fired the shotgun, the blast disappeared into its chest. It turned round noticing Ochre. It gave one of its low growls.

"SPECTRUM!"

And ran towards the officer, lashing at anyone that got in its way. Ochre hurried backwards, firing off as many shots as he could. He pumped back the slide on the gun and fired again. It wasn't working, a tentacle protruded from its hand and it came within range of the Spectrum captain.

A missile collided with its body and the creature stumbled back, Ochre whipped round to see Magenta and Leon on the roof of the building. The police officer held a rocket launcher in his hands.

"Looks like we got here just in time," Leon commented, but the burning remains of Nemesis started getting up again.

From the smoking remains the creature started to get up, pulled itself up and roared. Parts of its body started to pull itself back together, the tentacles started to rewrap around its body. Its skin started bulging, growths started stretching the skin across its back, the rest of its burnt and singed body was exposed as its coat had been burnt off.

"We're going to need a bigger explosion," Magenta sighed.

Nemesis's arm shot out and threw a chunk of masonry at the roof towards Magenta and Leon. The roof collapsed under them and the police officer fell to the ground, Magenta just managed to catch his hand.

"Someone stop it from getting the rocket launcher!" Ochre shouted. Grey looked on__– if a launcher couldn't stop it then what could? He ran back towards the munitions trucks. UBCS operatives were trying to unload the ammunition and dispense it out as quickly as possible.

"What else have you got in those trucks?" Grey shouted.

"We got grenades, missiles and a hell-load of semtex."

"Don't unload any of that, leave it where it is!"

"What?"

Grey grabbed an assault rifle, and ran back to the battle. He fired as many shots off at Nemesis as he could, aiming purely for its head. It didn't seem to damage it but it caught the creature's attention, its exposed muscles pulsing as it charged forward. Grey broke back into a run and headed back to the truck.

"What's he doing?" Ochre shouted.

"I know." Leon got up and picked up the rocket launcher. He stumbled, trying to stay conscious following the fall. Ochre helped him stay up on his feet as he levelled the rocket launcher.

Grey kept on firing off shots, the creature charged enraged at him. The tentacles reached out to grab him. Grey backed into the truck as the creature swung at him, tearing off the top half of the truck. He ducked behind cover as Leon fired the rocket launcher.

The shot flew past the creature and collided with the truck. The contents exploded in a mass that engulfed Nemesis in the blast, it vaporised in the heat of the fireball.

Everyone came over to survey the wreckage, weapons still at the ready. Grey could just make out a set of burnt ribs protruding from the wreckage, although the wreckage and the creature's remains seemed to be fused together now.

"Well," he said, "I think that did the trick."

Captain Blue and Claire continued to run through the streets, Claire still holding fiercely onto Sherry. Blue was getting worse by the minute, his face was paling and inside he could feel the virus starting to take hold. He felt it wouldn't be long until he was like the zombies they'd been spending all their time fighting, but so far Claire hadn't mentioned it at all to him.

At the moment they were lost, the exit from the labs had taken them to a different part of the city and none of them knew where they were. They'd just kept on running, zombies coming at them from all sides. Blue lifted up his gun to shoot some more, but he didn't even have that strength in him. He fell to his knees, Claire stopped and headed back to him.

"Come on, you've to get up." He just didn't have enough energy to move. Her eyes swivelled frantically; the zombies were all around them. There wasn't a way out anymore.

A wind kicked up around them, Blue could only just feel it around him.

"Captain look!" Claire shouted.

Above them was an Umbrella helicopter, it flew low over the streets, the machine gun burst into life and started cutting down the zombies around them. One figure leaped from the helicopter, blasting several zombies away with a sub-machine gun as he cleared a way from them to the helicopter.

"Come on, get up. No time to be lazy." The man had a thick South American accent, he kicked Blue and the blonde Spectrum officer started to get up. Claire put Sherry down and helped Blue to his feet, they headed back towards the helicopter as the man with the machine gun kept them covered. They climbed into the helicopter and it took off again.

"Man, you look terrible," the man commented, then he realised why. "Don't worry, they tell me your Doctor's made a breakthrough back at base camp."

'Base camp' had been hastily set up over the last few hours, a long stretch of canvas tents, most of them dedicated to treating wounded individuals. It was set up all around the RPD building; lots of police and ambulance officers were running to and fro. From the view in the helicopter it looked to Blue like a small forest had suddenly sprouted up in the middle of the city.

The moment the helicopter had touched down Grey called for a set of medics and they helped Blue onto a stretcher, pushing it over to one tent, much larger than the rest.

"Doctor?" one of the medics called, "we've got another for you. Apparently it's quite urgent."

Blue saw Dr. Fawn turn round to realise who his new patient was.

"Hello," he greeted Blue. Blue simply nodded, he didn't have the strength for much else.

Dr. Fawn leaned in and checked Blue's wound, both the bite and the bullet wound, then he returned to his work desk and started readying some of his equipment.

"Do you know why Raccoon City was picked to produce practically all of North America's medical products?" Fawn started.

"No…"

"Didn't read the briefing?"

"Well what does it have to do with anything?"

"The vast forest area that surrounds Raccoon City contains a unique set of medicinal herbs that only grow in this area due to the unique conditions of the environment."

Fawn injected Blue with a shot, he grimaced and Fawn continued on. He took a pair of forceps and dug into the bullet wound on Blue's shoulder; Blue grimaced as the Doctor pulled out the bullet and placed it in a nearby dish.

"When Captain Scarlet gave me the data on this virus I was able to whip up a serum that cancels the effect it has on rejuvenating dead cells, but that means the virus won't be 'healing' the injuries you've already obtained, and considering the amount of time you've been walking around with the bite and that bullet in your shoulder that means in your current state you aren't going to recover."

"So, you can't do anything to can save me?"

"Well you see, what I'm mainly going to do is take this green herb and this red herb and mix them together, and in five minutes you'll be completely cured."

Blue blinked and stared up at him. "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. These herbs can cure anything. It's what young Miss Rebecca Chambers has been using on most of the injured we've been receiving." He stuffed the herb into Blue's mouth and headed towards the tent's exit. "Chew on this and you'll be fine in no time."

Blue tried to speak through a mouth full of herbs. "What if I don't?"

Fawn had already left, Blue was left chewing the herbs around in his mouth, they tasted awful.

Rebecca sighed and put her hand to her head. Ever since getting back to the relay point she'd been dragged off to help tend to the masses of wounded and injured people. She'd been working non-stop tending to and caring for people.

She was starting to get tired. She walked over to the end of the tent and sat down, then the officers brought in another face she thought she'd never see again.

"Brad? You're alive!" she shouted. The nervous pilot looked up and gave her an apologetic smile.

"…yeah." One of the officers helped him over to the nearest medical bed. He could see from the look of complete disbelief on Rebecca's face she was dying to know how he survived.

"I managed to escape from that thing. But I guess I just got lucky and managed to end up back here." He trailed off with a nervous laugh. Rebecca noticed he was shaking, though she reckoned it was probably from shock. She pushed his head back to check for any wounds or bruises he might have picked up.

"Well, it seems you've managed to keep yourself in good condition."

"Thanks…" he muttered. Rebecca stared at him, then got up to check on any other patients more urgently in need of assistance.

"You seem to be fine. All I can recommend is that you get some rest," she said from over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll do that…" Brad replied. He relaxed in his chair; as he did a strange voice filled his head, calling out his name.

"This is Captain Black, relaying instructions from the Mysterons. The first attempt to destroy Raccoon City has failed, a second agent will be sent to obtain the virus from the mansion in the Arklay mountains. You know what you must do."

A small smile slithered across Brad's face. He stood up and walked out of the medical tent, unnoticed amongst all the fuss.

Claire sat on the makeshift stretcher inside the canvas tent. Now that it seemed the main worry was over the Spectrum and the RPD forces were concentrating on helping survivors and the wounded. Sherry rested her head on Claire's shoulder. Claire relaxed back in her seat, letting her thoughts unwind for a brief second. Outside she could hear lots of movement, people still wandering about and various authoritative voices barking stock orders. She wondered if she should go and help, she was sure there were still lots of people who needed help.

Someone pulled back the canvas flap and entered the tent. A yellow clad STARS officer gave her a shy smile.

"Hi, my name's Brad. I came to see how you were doing," he introduced himself and walked over. He looked fantastically nervous, and Claire briefly wondered whether it was because he was worried he'd have to deal with some hideous injury she might have obtained or because she was a member of the opposite sex.

"I'm fine," she replied, reclining back in her seat. Sherry began to wake up, Claire looked up at the STARS officer. "I was just wondering… I came here looking for my brother. His name is Chris…"

"Oh yes, I know Chris," he smiled again, but nervously shuffled and tried to avoid making eye contact. "I'm part of his team."

Claire would have jumped at him had she not thought the sudden movement would have given him a heart attack "Really? Do you know where he is?"

"Of course," he said, "he's right here in the base. I can take you to see him if you'd like."

"Yes… please." Claire stood up and got ready to follow Brad, but when she went to move something was tugging at her arm. "Sherry?"

"Claire, don't go." Claire crouched down next to Sherry and stroked her head.

"Don't worry, I'll be back. I'm just going with this man to see my brother. But I'll come back for you."

She hugged Sherry and stood up, following Brad outside the tent. She could see there were still a lot of Spectrum officers still organising the RPD and UBCS. There were a lot of tents set up, most of them seemed to be filled with people being given medical attention. But the grey Spectrum captain seemed to be getting the effort under control.

"It's just this way," Brad called to her. Claire followed behind him as they turned round the corner of the police station. It was more deserted here as the recovery effort was on the other side of the building. As they continued down the street Claire started to notice the slow decline of military presence.

"Are you sure this is the right way? It seems to me… Ow." She stopped because she felt a brief sting in her arm. But she didn't see what she could have cut herself on. Then she saw Brad sneak something back into his jacket.

"What was that?" she said, clutching her arm.

"What?" he said, seemingly in almost complete surprise.

"What did you just do?"

"Why? Is something wrong?" he said trying calmly to approach her.

"Get the hell away from me!" she said stumbling backward. She suddenly found herself losing her balance. She clutched her head, she was starting to feel dizzy.

"Are you feeling ok? Come here let me see."

"No!" She swiped her arms at him, not sure whether she'd hit him or not. Her head started to spin. She clamped her eyes shut, tried to focus her thoughts. It wasn't working.

"What the hell did you do to me?"

She suddenly collapsed; Brad caught her before she hit the floor. He looked at her unconscious form resting in his arms.

"What's going on?" Brad turned to see the Police officer from earlier approaching them. He put on his best concerned voice.

"I don't know, she just fainted. It must be everything that's happened."

"Do you want me to help?" Leon asked. Brad nervously laughed and picked up Claire in his arms.

"No, I can handle it. I think she needs to get to a hospital straight away." He walked away but Leon still tagged alongside him.

"I'll still help if I can."

"Shouldn't you be helping treat the survivors?" Brad turned around and asked him.

"Well, I just thought…"

"Captain Grey's orders were for everyone to stay and help. I can handle one person by myself. Having two people would be wasting resources," he said, his polite smile slowly fading. Leon didn't like it but eventually he conceded.

"I guess you're right…" And he turned round and walked back to the camp, keeping a watch on Brad as he headed towards the helicopter pad.

Brad slowly approached a Spectrum helicopter, which was standing stationary on the helicopter pad. The pilot looked out to see the STARS pilot carrying a girl.

"You've got to help me. This woman needs immediate medical attention. I have to get her to a hospital right away," Brad said. The pilot was surprised at the sheer amount of worry that was coming from the STARS officer.

"I'm sorry I can't do that. Orders are that no one is allowed to leave unless they've got a full load of passengers. Grey wants to ship out as many people as possible at a time, we can't waste time taking just one person."

"But I got special authority from Grey. This one's urgent," Brad protested, growing more anxious by the second.

"I haven't heard anything. Just a minute, I'll contact him and check…" The pilot reached over to the helicopter's onboard microphone. Brad pulled out a silenced pistol and pulled the trigger. The pilot lurched forward and fell lifeless onto the control panel. Brad reached forward and unbuckled his seatbelt before pushing the pilot over. He clambered in and placed the unconscious form of Claire on the passenger seat. He quickly began the helicopter's start up sequence and the motor came to life. Slowly he began to lift the helicopter up into the air. Below various people, RPD and Spectrum ran around surprised by the helicopter's unprecedented take off. Several messages asking why he'd taken off and ordering him to land immediately came through the radio. Brad didn't reply. He brought the helicopter round taking it out of range before anybody thought to try and stop him or shoot the helicopter down. In just a couple of minutes it had disappeared into the night sky.

Behind Jill the door to the safe room opened. She reached for her gun but relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Chris! Scarlet! You're ok!" she called. Scarlet entered but Chris hovered at the doorway. A shadow had descended over his face. "I found out about this hidden lab facility, there's a secret entrance leading to a complex underneath the mansion."

"We should check there then, finding that place might be key to stopping the Mysterons."

"Right, I'll show you." They headed towards the exit to find Chris pointing his gun at Scarlet.

"Chris, are you ok?" Jill asked.

"Who are you working for?" Chris rushed at Scarlet and slammed him into the wall, forcing his gun to his head. "You're with Umbrella aren't you? Did they send you to destroy all the evidence, is that it?"

"Chris! Calm down!" Jill shouted.

"The dog cages outside. I saw them; they were closed when we arrived. So that means someone opened them after we got here! But when that failed you released those lizard things to deal with us!"

"I didn't release anything, it was Wesker who opened the Hunters' cages."

"Why would he do that? Why would he kill himself?"

"I don't know but it's the truth."

"Chris, you're getting paranoid," Jill interrupted. Chris grabbed Scarlet and forced him down on to the floor, still keeping the gun trained on his head.

"He died Jill! I saw it! One of the those creatures managed to kill Wesker and he just got back up again!" Chris pushed the gun further into Scarlet's head. "You're working for them aren't you? You've got the same thing in you as those creatures outside!"

"I'm only trying to stop the Mysterons." Scarlet glared up at him.

"You keep mentioning these things but I haven't seen them, all I've seen is God damn zombies. So I'm going to deal with you the way I've dealt with all of them so far."

"Chris! Don't!" Jill shouted, but he wasn't listening.

"Jill, you and I both know the only way to be sure… is to shoot them in the head!"

"Chris! NO!" Her cry was drowned out by the sound of the gunshot which echoed through the hall. The single shell cartridge fell and chinked on the ground, and the hall was filled with the soft thump of a body falling to the floor.

Chris stood there looking down at the body, it wasn't moving. It just registered with him that he'd ended a human life.

He turned to Jill; her hand hovered over her mouth. He got up and walked towards her.

"Jill, I…" He reached out his arms.

"Don't touch me!" She backed away. Chris hovered, not knowing what to do. She walked over to the door, "I think I can hear someone…"

"Jill…" Chris called, she continued on. She carefully reached the door and pushed it open slightly. The gun in her hand was now shaking but she knew it wasn't the zombies that had frightened her so much.

She tried to push it all away and focus on the footsteps outside, they weren't slow and dragged out like the zombies she'd seen. These were a set of regimented steps, heavy boots clumping in time keeping up a precise pace. As she heard them go past she peeked her head through the door and saw a quick flash of blonde hair.

She threw the door open.

"WESKER? Is that you?" she cried. But she saw instantly that it wasn't Wesker. The figure slowly turned round to face Jill.

"…Joseph?" she said in disbelief. It was him, still wearing his red banana and dark grey STARS uniform, and a grenade launcher slung over his shoulder. There weren't any signs of scratches or blood. He stopped in his tracks, and slowly turned to face her.

"Jill, I've been looking for you."


	3. Chapter 3

Chris had just heard Jill call Joseph's name, who he'd last seen being torn apart by zombie dogs. But seeing him standing there, completely unharmed, it was as if everything so far had all been some weird distorted dream.

"Hey buddy…" he said, still not quite believing himself, "…why you looking so down?"

So he wasn't quite expecting it when Joseph pulled a gun out and shot him.

"Chris!" Jill reached over to where Chris fell.

"Don't move!" Joseph shouted, his gun now aimed squarely at her. She stopped, wanting to check on Chris who was curled up on the floor. He shot a pained look at her. She looked up at her STARS comrade.

"Joseph. Why did you do this?" He didn't reply. He walked over and grabbed her arm, violently pulling her up onto her feet.

"You know how to reach the laboratory, don't you?" he asked, still pointing the gun at her chest. She slowly nodded. He pushed her forward. "Show me."

Jill quickly glanced back at Chris, she couldn't leave him like this. But Joseph pushed the gun into her back and forced her on.

"No… Jill." Chris gasped, their eyes caught one more time as she turned round the corner. He tried to drag himself forward, feeling the bullet still lodged in his shoulder when he tried to move. Slowly, he started to pull himself up, propping up against the wall for support. A large groan escaped from him as the bullet made a sharp stinging sensation in his shoulder as he tried to move on.

But from behind him the groaning sound continued.

Chris swivelled round to see a zombie shuffling towards him. Joseph had left the door open and the zombie had been able to walk right in. Chris reached for his gun remembering he'd dropped it when Joe had shot him. In his current state he didn't feel fast enough to get the gun back before the zombie would be upon him. He reached for his knife pouch and slowly pulled out the long combat knife. He was suddenly aware of another sound from behind him, seeing another two zombies down the other end of the corridor.

"Oh great…" he mumbled. He cautiously approached the nearest zombie, knife ready, reaching forward and stabbing the creature in the head. He tugged back at the knife which had lodged itself in the creature's skull. It gave way and the thing's body slumped forward. He didn't have time to bring it round before one of the zombies behind him grabbed hold of him and opened its jaws aiming for his neck.

A shot rang out and the creature's head snapped away from Chris. The last zombie was dispatched with another clean shot through the head. Chris turned to see Captain Scarlet emerge from the door.

"You're still…?"

"Alive, yes," Scarlet finished for him. He reached his hand towards the back of his head. "Your shot wasn't as accurate as you thought. You hit me just below the head, in the collar bone, painful but not fatal."

Chris looked more nervous than ever, his hand tightly gripped around his knife. It seemed he still didn't trust the Captain.

"How do you keep getting up from all this stuff?"

"You've got to believe me when I said I wasn't working for Umbrella."

"I'm not quite sure what to believe at this point," Chris muttered.

"Something happened to me a long time ago, I was used against my will. That's why I've tried so hard to fight against the Mysterons. I can't let it continue like this."

Chris slowly lowered his knife. At the very least he knew the captain could have killed him by now if he'd meant to.

"Does that mean you heard what happened?"

Scarlet nodded "That Joseph was a Mysteron."

"I saw him ripped apart, but everything about him was fine, even his clothes. None of those zombies can come back like that," Chris was starting to realise, "but why'd he take Jill?"

"The secret laboratory under this mansion, Jill took the key card to access it. She's the only one who can get down there," Scarlet said, "I'll go after Joseph. We need to get out of here, but we can't radio for help."

"I know a way." The two nodded in agreement. Scarlet headed off down the corridor, but Chris placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Save Jill won't you?"

Captain Scarlet nodded.

"Of course."

Jill's card activated the hidden passage and an empty lift opened to greet them. The two stepped in, Joe reached forward and pushed the button. The doors slid shut and the lift began to descend. Jill turned to Joseph, trying to meet his gaze, but he stared forward, hardly noticing her. The lift stopped and the doors ground open.

The underground complex was completely different from the décor of the mansion. Large industrial machines lined the walls, there were hardly any lights and a thick mist hovered from where a gas pipe had burst.

Joseph gestured for Jill to go first, and she did. Her footsteps echoed on the steel grating beneath her feet. Her eyes kept darting around the lab, trying to find something that could help her escape. As they carried on she saw something scuttle out of view. Ahead of them there were strange twisted cries. She could see several creatures lurking in the shadows. Some of them crawled around on the ceiling, clinging with hooked hands and feet onto the gratings. They circled round the new visitors, aroused by the smell of fresh meat but they didn't want to approach Joseph. So the things stuck to the shadows where they were most comfortable and snarled as they went past.

They reached a bulkhead at the end of the corridor, a card reader idly waiting for them. Jill saw the look in Joseph's eyes and pulled the card out again and swiped it.

The door slid open, slowly the floor lights blinked on one by one beginning to illuminate the room. Jill cautiously stepped inside.

The room was deserted but a long row of computers and apparatus covered the wall at the end of the room. All of it seemed to centre around one giant containment capsule placed at the end of the room. Jill looked inside, the creature was twice as tall as her, grey skin which occasional bubbled and blistered. On its chest its organs seemed to be breaking out: she could see its heart pumping on the outside of its body. Its left hand was a long extended claw. Jill had the sudden urge to step away from it.

Joseph didn't seem bothered by the creature. He was typing away on the control panel, and several screens popped up about viral research. One of them was about the creature in the tank, the word 'Tyrant' was spread across the screen.

"You may leave if you wish," Joseph said, he continued typing. Jill thought of the creatures outside, she could just hear them beyond the door scraping to get in. She turned back to Joseph, eyeing his handgun; he kept it ready as he typed.

She edged closer, her hand hovered as she looked for an opportunity. Joseph had finished and a small panel opened up, revealing a vial of green liquid held inside. Joseph grabbed a silver suitcase and put the vial inside, secure between the foam padding.

"What's that?" Jill asked. Joe turned to her almost with a look of nostalgia for his teammate, then it was gone again.

"The destruction of Raccoon City has failed, for the Mysterons' plan to succeed I have to take the virus back and finish the outbreak."

"You're going to re-infect everyone!" Jill shouted. Joseph continued, and Jill's hand curled into a fist. "No! I won't let you!"

She leapt at him, he swung the gun round on her face and she fell back. She glared at him clutching her face where blood was starting to dribble from her lip. He aimed his gun at her head.

A bullet drove into his shoulder and he staggered back onto the control panel. He turned, enraged. Scarlet was silhouetted against the doorway. Joseph slammed his fist down on the control panel and the fluid in the containment pod started to filter through.

Joseph fired at Scarlet, who ducked for cover behind one of the large columns. Joseph grabbed the virus case and ran off. Jill jumped forward tripping Joseph over, he fell head first onto the floor dropping the grenade launcher. But he kicked back at Jill's stomach and she let go. He clambered to his feet and ran towards the exit. Scarlet fired a few shots as Joseph ran off, but he disappeared through the door as it sealed shut behind him.

Scarlet got up and headed over to Jill.

"Are you ok?" he said as he helped her to her feet.

"Fine," she replied, "shouldn't you be dead?"

The containment capsule hissed open and the monster inside stepped out. It saw them ahead and walked over to them.

"Quick! Get the door open!"

Chris opened the door to find the zombie dogs trying to get the last scraps off Joseph's body. He fired at one of them and the others suddenly became alert, one sprinted at Chris, he turned the rifle round and bashed it in the head as it approached. He pulled out his handgun again and fired at the remaining dogs.

He dropped the rifle and walked over to Joseph's body, digging around in the bulletproof vest and pulling out a hand-held radio. He wiped it clear of the blood that had seeped through and tuned it in.

"This is Chris Redfield to Spectrum, come in please." He grimaced at the wound in his shoulder; the medical equipment hadn't completely gotten rid of the pain he still felt.

On the radio static chirped back to him before a voice picked up.

"This is Spectrum Helicopter B27 receiving you."

"We need immediate evac, are you in any position to help?"

"Yes we can pick you up in a matter of minutes." Brad placed the microphone back on the receiver.

He turned back to look at Claire in the back seat. Her head hung as she lay still on the seat. Brad turned back to the controls.

"I know you are awake Earth-woman."

Her head lifted up.

"What are you going to do to Chris?"

"Nothing." His eyes stared impassively ahead, Claire noticed how all his nervous mannerisms had completely disappeared since she'd regained consciousness. She struggled in her seat, feeling her hands tied behind her back. She gave up and turned to Brad, a nervous tremor entered her voice.

"What about me?"

Brad didn't reply, his concentration fixed purely on the controls.

Joseph stood silently in the lift, the case still held firmly in his hand. It seemed an interminable wait before the lift reached the ground floor, the loud, constant whirring of the lift's mechanism the only sound he could hear. The lift stopped and the doors slid open. Wesker was waiting outside. He lifted up his gun and fired a shot at Joseph.

The first bullet from Wesker's magnum had gone clean through his head and the body immediately slumped to the floor. But Wesker fired five more shots into his chest just to be sure. The body jerked and writhed with each subsequent bullet. A silence hung in the air as Wesker examined the dead body. Satisfied that it wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, he walked over to the body and grabbed the case. Joseph's fingers were still tightly clamped around the handle. Wesker wrenched it from his grip, and calmly headed to the mansion's exit.

Underneath the mansion shots rang out in the dark corridors of the secret lab facility. Captain Scarlet fired off shots at the creatures that seemed to be springing out of the dark. Jill followed behind, reluctant to fire the grenade launcher for fear of hitting something liable to explode; that, and it seemed best to save the rounds for the Tyrant, which she was certain was still following behind them.

Scarlet fired at another creature that was about to leap at Jill but he didn't notice the one crawling on the ceiling above him.

"Get down!" Jill shouted. She fired a grenade at the creature. It burst into myriad flames and dropped from the ceiling. Captain Scarlet ran on and Jill leaped over the burning carcass.

"Call the elevator back!" Jill shouted, Scarlet was just a few steps ahead of her. She levelled the grenade launcher, getting ready to fire in case the Tyrant came back into range.

"It probably won't work!" Scarlet shouted. He had nearly reached the lift. "He'll probably have sabotaged it so we can't use it."

His finger jabbed furiously on the lift call button. His face filled up with surprise when it actually worked.

"Oh, maybe not…"

"It's coming!" Jill shouted. Both of them turned round and stared down the dark corridor. They couldn't see anything but they both knew it was coming.

Chris had heard the first shot hang in the air. He listened out when five more shots came through. He ran over to the mansion's main hall, trying to figure out where the shots had come from. As he entered the hall he saw someone enter from the second floor. He could see it wasn't Scarlet or Jill so he ducked behind the large stairway, and waited for the figure to descend the steps.

He aimed expecting to see Joseph at the floor, but was surprised to see another person he thought dead instead.

"Wesker?" he whispered, then he realised he must be the same as Joseph. A Mysteron. He aimed the gun at his head. And fired.

The creatures had started to move off. It seemed to Scarlet that some of them were just as scared of the Tyrant as they were. Others seemed to have gone on the defensive, worried that something else was coming to take their prey, and the two could hear odd screams of the creatures dying and gurgling. The Tyrant's heavy footsteps were now echoing through the corridor. Jill had the grenade launcher ready, Scarlet aimed his handgun, knowing it wouldn't do much. He briefly stared back at the lift controls and wondered if it would ever make it in time.

Then it finally appeared. The Tyrant stepped out of the shadows, the lab lights slowly illuminating its grotesque muscular body. Jill fired the grenade launcher. Too soon. The round missed the creature's body and it continued to walk through where the round had lit up the surrounding wall. Scarlet leaned forward, trying to get off at least one shot that could slow it down. He aimed for the creature's heart pumping on the outside of its body. He fired and the bullets hit their target. The round was too insignificant to kill it but it paused for just a brief second. Long enough for Jill to finish reloading the grenade launcher and fire again. This time she followed Scarlet's lead and shot it right in the heart.

The round exploded in the centre of its chest and the creature let out a giant moan. Finally the lift arrived and the doors slid open.

"Quick! Get in!" Scarlet shouted. The two poured into the lift and Scarlet quickly jabbed the up button. The lift slowly began its ascent, managing to carry them away from the lab. It was over. Scarlet let out a sigh of relief.

"Umm… Captain?" He heard Jill say and he turned round to find what had disturbed her. Lying on the floor of the lift with several bullet wounds riddling his body was Joseph Frost.

"What?" He was baffled. "Who could have…"

Suddenly a giant claw tore through the floor of the lift, tearing straight through the Mysteron Joseph. The claw retreated and tore through again. The lift suddenly halted, shaking and throwing the two off their balance.

"Oh God! It's coming through! What do we do?" Jill shouted trying to gain her balance in the lift and avoid the claw as it came through the floor again.

Scarlet pointed to the service hatch above them. "Get onto the roof of the lift! It's our only hope!"

Wesker turned just in time to see Chris fire at him and barrelled out of the way. He ducked for cover behind one of the pillars in the hallway. Chris got up, keeping his gun trained on where Wesker was hiding. He slowly approached the pillar coming up round the side to find… nothing. There was no one there. Wesker had disappeared.

"What?" Chris's gaze hadn't moved from that spot. There was no way Wesker could have just vanished. "How?"

Suddenly something slammed into Chris, the force sending him flying into the wall. He looked up see it was Wesker. In a blur Wesker ran towards him and clamped his hands around Chris's throat and dragged him up the wall.

"You…" Chris tried to gasp and Wesker stared impassively up at him, "…You're a Mysteron."

"A Mysteron?" He nearly laughed, but instead he threw Chris across the length of the hall. Chris landed on his back, before he could get up Wesker was right at his side. He stamped his foot down on Chris's neck, slowly pushing down.

"I'm not one of those mind-controlled slaves." He took off his sunglasses. His eyes were a deep fiery red with slit pupils, they almost seemed to glow in the dim light. "I'm something so much better."

Chris made a noise, not sure if it was a gasp of surprise or whether he was just running out of air.

"Working for Umbrella does have some advantages. You know, if I try hard enough I can probably crush your neck." Wesker pushed down harder still, Chris desperately tried to struggle against Wesker's grasp on his neck. But the pressure just increased.

He couldn't breathe; everything around him started to go black.

Jill grabbed onto Scarlet's hand and was pulled up onto the roof of the lift. The lift was starting to shake violently under the Tyrant's repeated attacks. Jill quickly clambered up the service ladder and Captain Scarlet followed suit.

"What do we do if this thing realises how to climb ladders?" Jill asked.

"Panic."

He didn't want to think about that possibility. Underneath he could hear the Tyrant still tearing the lift apart. Scarlet looked over to the lift cable.

"Wait! Jill! Shoot out the lift cable!" he shouted.

"Right!" She looped her arm around the rung of the ladder and pulled the grenade launcher round to aim at the lift cable. She fired one round and the cable burst into flames. Scarlet covered his eyes feeling the heat of the round. The cable gave way and snapped, causing the lift to fall. The force kicked up a cloud of dust and Jill fired the remaining load of grenades down into the lift. The lift exploded bringing a mass of metal sheets flying in the crowded shaft. Flames were beginning to rise, and the two continued their ascent.

"Do you think I got it?" she asked.

"I think you just might have…" Scarlet replied.

Suddenly the building shook and Wesker was thrown off his balance. Chris reached forward taking a giant gulp of air. He reached his gun and brought it to bear on Wesker, who had grabbed the case and was rushing towards the exit. Chris fired off a shot, but Wesker had already disappeared. Now he was gone Chris just collapsed on the floor, violently coughing as he tried to get his breath back.

The helicopter… he had to get to the helicopter…

Chris forced himself up, massaging his neck. Then he remembered the gunshots. Maybe Wesker had gotten to Jill and Scarlet before him. He rushed up the stairs trying to remember where the shots had come from.

Jill pulled the emergency release and the doors slowly ground open. She clambered onto the floor and breathed in the fresh air from the corridor. Scarlet followed seconds afterward and collapsed on the floor. The two lay there for a while, taking a brief moment of respite. They exchanged glances and Jill put her hand on her head and laughed.

"We finally made it!" she cried.

"Jill! Scarlet! Are you alright?" They both heard a voice calling to them.

"Chris!" Scarlet shouted as he recognised the figure rushing down the corridor. Scarlet sat up. Jill looked up delighted to see him again.

Chris rushed towards Jill and lifted her to her feet, holding her in a tight embrace.

"I'm so glad you're ok…" he whispered. Jill pulled back so she could see his face.

"Me too," she said simply and leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

"So, what do we do now?" Scarlet interrupted. Chris and Jill pulled themselves apart. Chris paused, trying to go over events in his head.

"Something happened…"

"What?"

"Well…"

Wesker was already half way down the mountain path, the long grass brushing past his feet. His body was raging; he was going so fast that his movements were almost a complete blur, but even so he kept his pace, there was still the virus sample to consider, it wouldn't be much help if it was broken.

The experimental virus inside his body was raging. He examined the spot where the Hunter had driven its claws through his chest; already the wound had completely disappeared. There was no evidence of the original attack save for the large tear in his uniform, though he could still feel a few ribs trying to slide back in place.

Wesker skidded to a halt. It was pitch black but he could see perfectly. A lone figure, pale, gaunt and wearing a long black coat stood in amongst the maze of trees. Standing as if he'd been waiting for him this whole time.

"Are you from Umbrella?" Wesker asked, "You can tell them I decided to 'relieve' them of the remaining virus sample and all its research. I'm sure that once the city incident is revealed to the public they'll be getting a lot of negative press. So you can tell them I've taken the opportunity to remove as much evidence of their works as I could."

"You are mistaken. My name is Captain Black, I am only interested in the virus, it must be released in Raccoon City."

Wesker laughed.

"You seem to underestimate the potential this virus has. The most powerful biological weapon in the world, such information can make someone very powerful indeed."

"I am not interested in such things, it is you will be the one to release the virus."

"Yes, well. As much as I would love to do that I think I might decline."

Wesker raised his gun and fired at the figure, but by this point he'd already seemed to disappear. An eyebrow raised itself from the veil of his sunglasses.

The man slammed into Wesker, knocking the gun out of his hand. Wesker kicked back at the man but he'd already disappeared again. He took off his sunglasses and scanned the forest, keeping an eye out for any movement.

Wesker's arms jerked up to block Black's punch, he kicked back but the captain moved just out of his reach, Wesker lunged forward and punched him but Black ducked and the blow missed. This man managed to block all of Wesker's punches, even though he was moving at superspeed. Wesker rushed forward and punched Captain Black in the stomach, a blow that should have shattered his ribs, but he didn't seem at all affected.

Wesker stumbled back and saw his gun on the ground. He reached out his hand and leapt for it.

Throughout the mountainside of Raccoon City a gunshot rang out. It echoed through the whole valley. Just coming down the mountain path, Scarlet stopped, Jill was supporting Chris up as he limped from the bullet wound. They all halted.

"That was Wesker's gun." Chris recognised the sound.

"Who was he firing at?" Jill asked.

"We won't know by standing here," Scarlet said, brushing the long grass past his feet as he continued, Jill followed his lead.

Scarlet ran ahead. He reached a circle of trees in the forest and came to a halt. Jill and Chris emerged seconds later. They saw Scarlet examining something on the ground.

"What is it?" Jill asked. Scarlet stepped back so they could see.

Wesker's body was sprawled lifelessly across the ground, the suitcase containing the T-virus had gone.

Scarlet turned the body over, a bullet had entered through the top of his spine and exited through his head.

"What the hell?" Chris exclaimed. Scarlet had a look of complete dread on his face.

"What is it Scarlet?" Jill feared the answer.

"Wesker is in the hands of the Mysterons."

A Spectrum helicopter touched down on an opening further down the mountain path. Claire looked out the windscreen, she could see a figure waiting in the field, wearing a black uniform and dark sunglasses despite the fact it was the middle of the night. His hands were firmly gripped around a suitcase. As soon as the helicopter had touched down he calmly walked over and got into the seat next to the pilot. She saw his eyes glow a vibrant green under the lenses of his glasses as he turned to examine her in the backseat.

"A little insurance," Brad noted.

Wesker sat down and Brad pulled the helicopter up once more.

Scarlet, Chris and Jill rushed down the hill, losing their footing in the steep steps. In the distance they heard the whirr of an engine.

"What's that?" Chris asked.

"It's the helicopter," Scarlet realised.

"Why is it so far away?"

It appeared rising just above the trees, Chris waved his arms as it took off.

"We're over here!"

It didn't pick them up, but turned tail and headed back to Raccoon City.

"Wesker must be on that helicopter," Jill realised.

"How are we gonna catch him now?" Chris exclaimed.

Scarlet examined the surroundings, in the distance further down the mountain Scarlet could see the ranch house they'd passed earlier.

"You two wait here," he said and rushed off down the hill, "I'll be back soon."

"Wait! Where are you going?" Jill shouted but Scarlet didn't reply and disappeared down the hillside.

At the ranch house came a very loud knocking at the door. Rake, the owner, got up and trudged towards the door; the knocking just got louder and more infuriating. Two dogs were anxiously barking and scraping at the door, and their owner shooed them away.

"Alright, I'm comin'," he shouted as he undid the lock and opened the door. A red uniformed officer was panting heavily from the rush. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an identification card.

"Captain Scarlet, Spectrum…"

"Where is Scarlet?" Jill shouted, continuing to support Chris as his wound was getting worse.

Suddenly a large blue tank rolled out of the trees and skidded to a halt. Spectrum logos covered the exterior of the SPV. The door slid open and Scarlet was seated inside.

"Get in!" he shouted, the two obeyed, clambering into the giant vehicle. Scarlet pointed to some boxes at the back. "You should be able to find some medical equipment in the back."

Chris looked around the interior of the craft as Scarlet brought the engines roaring back to life.

"Why can't we get one of these?" Chris asked.

"You don't quite have the budget."

"We have the budget for a helicopter."

Scarlet considered.

"Maybe…"

As the helicopter continued on its way towards Raccoon City, Wesker kept the suitcase on his lap. A call came through on the Spectrum waveband.

"Wesker, this is Captain Scarlet." Wesker calmly reached forward and picked up the microphone.

"Good to hear from you Captain."

"If you don't stop and put down right now, we will open fire and shoot you down."

"You wouldn't do that Captain." A mocking smile spread across Wesker's face. "You wouldn't want to cause any harm to our young Miss Redfield would you? Say hello to your brother, won't you?"

He grabbed Claire's hair and wrenched her forward, she grimaced but didn't say anything. Wesker pulled tighter and she let out a cry.

"…Chris!"

Chris reached forward in the SPV's seat.

"…no."

Scarlet turned back, not sure what to do. The SPV was placed half way up the mountain slope; Scarlet had a clear shot of the helicopter.

"You can't shoot them down!" Chris cried.

"What can we do? We can't let them get away," Scarlet shouted. A silence followed before Scarlet came up with an idea. "I'll fire a dummy round."

It was a risky suggestion but he couldn't just let the Mysterons get away. He pushed the button and the missile fired.

Brad saw the missile alert light up on the helicopter's scanner. He manipulated the helicopter's controls to avoid the shot.

Wesker lowered his head, brow creased in frustration. He suddenly grimaced, then reached out his hand and clamped it round Brad's arm.

"Wesker?" Brad queried.

"You…" Wesker looked up at him, a look of hatred in his eyes. "You make me feel sick."

He suddenly jerked Brad's arm and the helicopter was sent spinning out of control, right into the path of the missile. It suddenly exploded and Brad furiously tried to pull the helicopter back on course, but it was too late and the helicopter crashed into the ground.

Scarlet, Chris and Jill stared at the screen in the SPV, unable to believe the sight before their eyes.

"I don't understand, I missed!" Scarlet tried to justify himself.

"You…" Chris gasped, "you killed my sister!"

He turned around reaching for Scarlet but Jill pulled him back.

"We don't know that!" Chris turned to face her. "If we go to the crash site she might still be alive."

Scarlet roared the SPV's engine back to life. "Right! Let's go!"

Claire choked and coughed as the thick smoke swirled around her. Someone tore open the helicopter doors and reached down for her, she tried to move away from them but once they managed to grasp her arm she couldn't break out of the steel grip.

"Get out," the voice commanded. She was pulled up out of the helicopter, and thrown to the ground landing in amongst the grass. She coughed as the cold night air whipped past her. She tried to regain her senses and forced herself up, seeing the person who'd thrown her descend from the helicopter. She pulled herself up and tried to run, it wasn't a second before the man caught her and slammed her back down onto the ground. He loomed over her and kneeled down on top of her; she could feel the gaze of his eyes burning into her through his glasses.

"Do exactly as I say, I won't hesitate to kill you and be assured I do not need any weapons to do this." Claire clamped her eyes shut, then he pulled her up onto her feet and pushed her forward. Claire tried to look into his eyes. She could have sworn, just before he had caused the helicopter crash that his eyes had been red.

The SPV reached the wreckage site in a matter of seconds. Once it skidded to a halt Chris jumped out and rushed to the crash site.

"Claire!" His voice echoed around the place, but nobody answered. Jill and Scarlet followed behind as he reached the site and threw the helicopter door open.

"Is there anybody in there?" Scarlet called to him.

"No." He got down and stared back at them, "Wesker and Claire… they're gone."

He collapsed onto his knees, Jill went over and crouched by him. Scarlet looked into the cockpit, seeing one body which had been sent through the window, a large spike of glass sticking out of his body.

"Chris, it'll be ok," Jill kept reassuring him, "it means she's alive and that means we can still save her."

"We need to figure out where they went," Scarlet announced. "If they can't get back by helicopter what other route can they take?"

Jill looked out across the mountainside before she came up with an answer. "The train. There's a train line that leads straight into Raccoon City, that would be the fastest way to get back."

"Right, let's get there as fast as we can," Scarlet said. Jill got up to follow him and Chris trudged along behind. Jill turned to him and took his hand, they both got into the SPV together.

Wesker had led the way down the mountain path, keeping a firm grip on Claire's arm so she couldn't escape. He hadn't said anything since they'd left the helicopter and just kept pushing her forward. They were heading towards an old run-down shack, to the left of it Claire could see a railway tunnel leading out of the mountainside.

Wesker opened the door to the shack, shoving Claire inside. It was bare and it seemed nobody had been there for years. A wooden chair was pulled up next to an old table, another door was on the other side of the room. The only item to decorate the place was an old typewriter, an ink ribbon still fitted inside.

Wesker reached over to the typewriter and tapped down on the keys, jabbing several letters onto the sheet of paper.

Wesker/ 02/ ENTRANCE

-NC0394-

From behind the door a lock clicked; Wesker led Claire over to the door and opened it. It led to a set of stone stairs that didn't fit the rundown appearance of the shack. A couple of lights lined the walls but Claire couldn't see what was at the bottom. She hovered at the entrance, trying to see down when Wesker pushed her forward.

"Move."

And she continued down the steps.

As they descended down the steps, the lights slowly faded. Claire tried not to lose her footing in the pitch-black passageway but Wesker seemed to traverse his way just fine.

As they went further down Claire started to hear the distant sound of machinery. Industrial clunks of automated machines started coming into focus as they got closer and closer.

They reached the end of the stairs and Claire could see the shape of a door illuminated by the lights of a keypad. Wesker punched in another code and the door opened.

Behind the door two soldiers wearing black armour displaying the Umbrella corporate logo suddenly came to attention. They lowered their guns when they saw who was standing there.

"Commander Wesker…" the first one said, the helmet visor covering his eyes, "we weren't expecting you."

"I need to speak to Dr. Marcus," he said. The guards nodded, one of them examining Claire. "I caught an intruder, she was trying to infiltrate the laboratory. I've taken her into my custody for now; take her to the platform. I'll be down in a minute."

"Yes sir," they both replied as Wesker continued on his way.

The SPV stopped at the bottom of the mountainside, the entrance to the tunnel in plain sight. The three officers descended from the SPV, guns at the ready. Scarlet surveyed the surroundings.

"There isn't a station near here?" he asked.

"No, the line is supposed to go straight to the next city," Jill replied.

"That means they couldn't have got onto the train already," Scarlet noted, "They were on foot so that means they can't have beaten us here. They must be somewhere in the vicinity. We'll go ahead and check the tunnel."

Scarlet led the way and the two followed behind him.

Dr. Marcus was in his study going over various reports when someone entered. After everything that had happened over the last few hours he wasn't in the mood for visitors but he calmed down when he saw who it was.

"Commander Wesker, I'm glad you're here," he addressed the new arrival.

"I need the train ready to leave for Raccoon City," Wesker said simply, noticing a long black coat hung up on a peg. He walked over and put it on, a perfect fit.

Marcus continued. "Well, so far we've only managed to load a third of the specimens Birkin ordered, we weren't expecting…"

"You don't need to worry about Birkin's orders anymore," Wesker said, then he suddenly paused, his brow creased in agitation and it occurred to Marcus that he looked ill.

"Erm, Commander Wesker, we heard there was an incident in Raccoon City. Do you know what…"

"I need the train to set off for Raccoon City immediately." Wesker hovered by the door.

"But we're still…" He caught the look in Wesker's eyes even through the sunglasses; he tried to leave. Wesker's hand shot out in front of him, blocking off his exit.

"I simply need the train to leave and me to be on it. Understood?"

"Yes sir," the scientist stammered, "I'll have it done right away."

Wesker descended the stairs into the train station hidden under the mountain. Usually all the Umbrella shipments would pass through this post before being shipped off to the outside world. The operations had ground to a halt following the sudden loss of communications from Raccoon City.

The sentries had been trying to do their best to get the train ready for departure. Having heard vague reports from the City most of the staff had been sent off to assist the UBCS forces, so now a skeleton crew was working furiously to get it working again. Wesker had ordered all the sentries to get the train ready, offering no explanation for his sudden orders. A sentry came to meet him as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Commander Wesker, we're just about done. We still haven't managed to load all the specimens but…"

"I thought I made it clear to Dr. Marcus I don't care about the specimens, just as long as the train leaves."

"Yes, sir…" The sentry headed back. The train was a huge supply train, no one had managed to get their heads round the idea of one person using it for the sake of a short journey into the city, but they followed orders regardless.

Wesker headed into the front cabin. A driver was making last minute checks on the systems, and two sentries were standing guard.

"Commander Wesker," the driver addressed him, "the engines are started and we can leave when you wish."

"Thank you, now get out."

"Sir?"

"It doesn't take much brains to drive this thing, I don't need any help to make a simple trip to the city." He turned round, meaning the sentries as well. They all vacated the train and Wesker went over to the controls. The doors hissed closed and he started the activation sequence.

Scarlet and the others advanced along the tunnel line. Every step they took echoed down the hollowed-out mountainside. They hadn't found anything. Chris held a torch illuminating the tunnel ahead.

"There must be something here," he whispered. They hadn't found anything so far, but they kept going none the less.

Jill's foot hit something on the floor. She checked what had disturbed her.

"Hey, there's a piece of track that leads off right into the wall." Jill shone the torch so that the others could see. The track seemed to separate from the main trail but there wasn't anywhere for it to go and it seemed to disappear straight into the wall of the tunnel.

"Why's this here? It doesn't make any sense."

Their thoughts were interrupted by a low rumbling sound that spread throughout the tunnel. Ahead of them the entire tunnel wall opened up revealing the way to a large facility complex. A set of trains stood stationary at their posts though lots of people seemed to be crowded around one.

The STARS members and Spectrum captain pushed their backs to the wall hoping they hadn't been noticed. They kept silent, trying to figure out what all the activity was about. But everyone seemed too busy to worry about any intruders.

It seemed the men had finished in their duties and one of them signalled that the vehicle was ready to leave. It slowly wheezed into life and started to glide out of its holding place.

Chris spied the logo on the side of the train. "Umbrella…"

Scarlet faltered, a wave of sickness suddenly overcame him.

"Are you ok?" Jill asked. Scarlet regained his composure.

"Wesker is on that train," he said.

"How can you be sure?" Chris asked.

"I just am." He headed forward. "We need to get on."

The head of the train headed past the opening and Scarlet jumped on, reaching for a handrail on the side. Chris followed suit and then reached out his hand to Jill. A sentry spotted them and gave the order to open fire; the shots just missed and Jill let go of Chris's hand, falling behind.

"Jill!" he cried as he saw her try to outrun the shots, she grabbed onto another rung a few carriages down. Chris got ready to jump off and follow her but a hand pulled him back.

"What about Jill?" he shouted.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Scarlet said, "After all, she's the one with the grenade launcher."

Chris conceded and the two of them both got to work on opening the side door.

Jill's lock pick had made short work of the security device and she entered the carriage. There weren't any guards but she still kept her gun ready. There weren't many lights but she could see the place was filled with storage boxes. She examined them wondering what was inside. They didn't seem to be biological containers, they were much more conventional weapon containers. She tore the lid off one of the supply boxes. Inside were rows of grenade rounds. She picked up one up and examined the inscription on the side. It listed several volatile chemicals, most of which she didn't recognise the names for. She pocketed several capsules and loaded one into the empty grenade launcher. Then she continued her search down the train.

"Commander Wesker." A call came through from the base, and Wesker picked up the microphone.

"Yes?"

"We saw a number of hostiles who boarded the train just as it was leaving. We were unable to stop them sir…"

"Don't worry, I'll deal with them myself," he replied.

"By yourself sir?"

"Yes, that is what I said." Wesker put the microphone down and headed back into the train.

He entered the next carriage and the other person inside flinched at his appearance. Claire struggled to get up with her hands still incapacitated; there was a look of complete fear in her eyes now. She tried to move as far away from Wesker as she could, he didn't seem to care.

"Come with me," Wesker ordered.

"No."

He halted and craned his head round to face her. He rushed at her and slammed her into the wall. A pain shot through her back as Wesker pinned her into the wall. A whimper escaped which she tried to hide. Wesker lifted her head up to face his.

"You will do everything I tell you. Understand?" She nodded slowly. Wesker released his grip and gestured for her to go first.

He led her down the carriage. They reached a compartment where a set of cylindrical capsules lined the walls. Inside were odd black swirling shapes. Claire realised each of these was an individual object, creatures, slugs of some sort, or possibly leeches.

Wesker stopped and grimaced again, this time needing to lean against the wall for support. He seemed to be hiding how much he was affected by these attacks. She paused, not sure whether to approach him.

"I feel ill. Sick." He turned to her, a possessed look in his eyes. "Is it you?"

He reached forward and grabbed her, clamping his fist round her neck.

"Are you the one doing this to me?"

"I…" she gasped, "I don't know!"

He gripped tighter still, she struggled to get the words out.

"Please… I'm not…"

He let go and pushed her into the carriage. That feeling washed over him again, but he knew it wasn't coming from her. He walked out the carriage and typed the number on the panel so the door glided shut and the locks bolted closed.

"No!" Claire rammed herself against the door, it failed to budge.

She slumped to the floor, resting her forehead on her knees.

Chris and Scarlet headed down the train, there was no sign of Wesker. This just seemed to make Chris even more tense. Scarlet went first, readying his bowgun.

"He's around here somewhere," he said. His nausea was getting worse but over the years he'd slowly grown used to it.

They headed down the train. There still wasn't anything, but Scarlet was sure they were getting closer.

Jill continued down the carriage, she'd gone past the supply carriages and had entered the more normal sections of the train. All of it seemed surprisingly bare, some of the carriages looked like they were designed to hold more creatures but all of them were empty.

She approached the door at the end of the carriage; she could see into the next one through a small circle of glass in the door. In it were the same containment capsules she'd gone past, except that these seemed to have something in them. But apart from those creatures there didn't seem to be much else, but when she looked again she noticed another figure sitting in the room.

Jill opened the door to find Claire. She rushed over to her, taking the knife from Claire's pouch and started to cut into her bindings.

"Who are you?" Claire asked.

"I'm Jill," she replied, "I'm with your brother. I'll have you free in a …"

"LOOK OUT!"

Wesker appeared, punching Jill in the stomach. The force of the blow sent her flying across the carriage. Wesker ran towards her but she still had the knife in her hands, she lunged at Wesker but he dodged and grabbed her arm. He twisted her arm back and pushed down on her back with his foot, slowly wrenching her arm off.

"Too bad," he replied, he pulled her arm back further, Jill screamed as she felt the muscles pull in her body.

Wesker's head snapped forward as something blunt and heavy struck him. He simply craned his head to see what had hit him. Claire stood there holding a pipe, she hesitated seeing that he didn't seem affected by the blow at all. She panicked and rushed to hit him again.

Instead he threw Jill at Claire. The two barrelled into the wall. Wesker got up and slowly approached them, then he seemed distracted as another attack overcame him. He turned away opening the train door, tapping some buttons on the control panel.

"A little something to keep you two busy…"

Jill got up and ran towards him. The door closed behind Wesker as the locks activated. Jill slammed her fists on the door as it shut.

"Damn you Wesker!" she shouted; she could still see him through the glass. He looked at her triumphantly. "I'm going to kill you!"

He laughed at the remark and disappeared down the train. Behind her, she could hear several of the capsules opening up.

Scarlet and Chris approached just in time to see Wesker leave, he was heading up the ladder leading to the train roof. Scarlet climbed up first and Chris followed. They got up only to find Wesker waiting for them.

"So good of you to join me," he greeted them.

"This doesn't have to go any further," Scarlet said levelling his gun "The Mysterons' plans have already failed, you don't need to try to re-infect the city."

"I have no interest in carrying out the Mysterons' plan."

"What?" Scarlet exclaimed. Wesker lowered his glasses and the tinge of green in his eyes disappeared. Scarlet gasped in surprise, then tried again. "If you can get yourself free of the Mysterons' control then you don't have to do this."

"I don't care what fate befalls Raccoon City, I'll just have to keep the virus for myself."

"And you think the Mysterons will let you?" Scarlet asked.

Wesker didn't reply, he just continued.

"Once this disaster comes to the public's attention Umbrella will surely be shut down and all their research will disappear. Apart from anyone who managed to grab hold of it before that happened."

"You can't be serious!" Scarlet shouted. A grin spread over Wesker's face in reply.

"What did you do to Claire?" Chris shouted.

"Your sister? I don't think Jill or her will be joining us anytime soon."

Chris yelled out and charged at Wesker with his fists raised.

Wesker swivelled round and tripped Chris up then he brought his fist down on Chris's wounded shoulder. He screamed in agony, then Wesker kicked him in the stomach sending him rolling down the train.

Wesker rushed at Scarlet. Scarlet wasn't prepared for Wesker's speed and his punch hit him right in the stomach. Scarlet doubled up but raised his arm to block Wesker's next blow, the force of the punch nearly shattered his bones. He grabbed Wesker's next punch and the two were locked together, Scarlet trying to push him back with all his might. Wesker flipped Scarlet over and slammed him onto his back. He yelled out then Wesker's hand grasped his neck to cut the sound off.

"You! You're the one!" Wesker said, a look of revulsion crossing his face. Scarlet started to fade into unconsciousness as he felt his windpipe being crushed. "You're the one making me feel like this! I don't know what you've done to me but I will make you suffer!"

Jill and Claire struggled to open the door. The seal slowly unbolted and gave way just enough for them to open it, while around them the leeches were slowly slithering forwards. They ran towards the ladder.

"You go first!" Jill shouted. Claire ascended the rungs to the roof.

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine."

Claire opened the hatchway to the train roof, hurried up the ladder and crawled up on the roof.

Wesker turned round to see her reach the rooftop. He forgot Scarlet and immediately ran towards her. Claire went to grab her knife but Wesker was already there, he hit her sending her hurtling down the train.

He looked down to see Jill ascending the ladder. She shouted Claire's name, Wesker spun round and slammed the hatch cover back down.

"Wesker!" He heard his name being shouted. Chris threw a punch at Wesker, then he clamped his hands together and brought them down on Wesker's face. They hardly seemed to throw him off his balance. He hit Chris back, and the soldier was knocked to the floor. Claire ran to check on Chris, and Wesker turned his attention back to Scarlet.

Those leeches were still coming swarming around the bottom of the ladder. Jill loaded the special rounds into her grenade launcher and aimed into the horde. The explosion took out the whole floor of the train as well as the leeches, leaving it as scrap metal behind on the tracks.

The train suddenly tilted and everyone was thrown off their balance. It started to shake violently. Scarlet slid across the roof and nearly fell off. Wesker dragged him back up and slammed him to the floor, he started punching him with every word he said: "HOW – ARE – YOU – DOING – THIS – TO – ME?"

Claire drove her knife into his back; Wesker reeled round and hit her. He got up and grabbed her neck lifting her off her feet.

She struggled in his grip but couldn't break free. His eyes scanned her up and down.

"Such a shame…" he sighed and then threw her off the train.

"NO!" Scarlet leaped forward, grabbing Claire's arms. The sudden new weight caused him to slide towards the edge of the train but he caught his footing on the side.

Below them the scenery blurred past, he started to pull Claire up and she reached her foot over the side.

Wesker loomed over them, he stamped his foot down on Scarlet's hand. Scarlet yelled out and released his grip on Claire. Wesker slammed his foot on Scarlet's other arm but he refused to let go. Wesker pushed harder; something started to crack.

Claire pulled herself up and grabbed onto Scarlet, reaching for his gun holster; she aimed at Wesker's face and fired.

His head snapped back, he grasped his eye and stumbled backwards. His glasses fell to the floor, broken.

Scarlet pulled Claire up. "You and your brother need to get off the train, now!"

She nodded and ran over to Chris, Scarlet turned his attention back to Wesker.

He saw Wesker stumbling back and quickly grabbed him, forcing him into an arm lock. Wesker struggled, blinded but losing none of his fury. Suddenly he froze, he couldn't move in Scarlet's grip.

He panicked as he tried to realise what had happened, at the head of the train he saw Jill, she held the grenade launcher in her hands.

Then he realised, the sickness had overwhelmed him completely and in his head a terrible voice echoed through.

_Albert Wesker_… No! … _You have failed and defied the Mysterons. For this you shall die_…

"No…" he whispered.

"Oh, take it like a man," Scarlet said.

Jill fired the grenade launcher at Wesker's chest. The figures of Wesker and Scarlet disappeared under a fireball as the rounds exploded. Their bodies clung together in a charred heap, then separated when they rolled down the train and were flung apart by the force.

Jill jumped from the train as it started to sway alarmingly. It came off the rails and crashed; the ammunition in the back compartment detonated exploding in a large flame that engulfed the whole train.

From all the way down the track Jill could see the pillar of smoke obscure the morning sky. She watched before she dropped the grenade launcher which now felt too heavy to hold in her hands.

A friendly voice called to her and she turned to see Chris and Claire approaching her. They asked what had happened and where Scarlet was. She told as much as she could make sense of, but was glad to be interrupted by the sound of a Spectrum helicopter flying overhead.

"Colonel?" White picked up at the mention of his name; Lieutenant Green was diligently tending to the computer as messages continued to come in. "I've just received a report from Raccoon City, they tell me that a Spectrum helicopter has just picked up the remains of Alpha Team and the girl who was reported missing. Another one is just picking up Captain Scarlet right now."

"He isn't with them?"

"It seems he had an accident involving a grenade launcher."

A smile briefly spread across the Colonel's face and then vanished as he got up from the seat he'd been glued to and walked over to the window.

"Are you alright Colonel?" Green asked. Colonel White continued to look over the azure horizon before he answered.

"The Mysterons didn't destroy the population of the City but I fear they've still succeeded in some way. The Umbrella laboratory has been completely destroyed and that means the medicinal supplies for America will be at a halt until more can be shipped in from Europe. And an inquiry will have to be made into the state of the company itself, we still don't know the full extent of the experiments they were running. It wasn't the Mysterons that created those creatures…"

Captain Blue headed to the roof of the RPD building. Ochre was radioing in most of the RPD officers still on patrol as they had set about clearing the streets and checking for survivors. Grey was still commanding the UBCS as they were clearing away any remaining zombies. He'd been a bit redundant since Dr. Fawn had started to get the recovery situation under control.

The sun glared into his eyes as he stared up to watch the helicopter touch down. Blue came over to greet the survivors as they limply descended from the helicopter.

"It's good to see you're all ok," he said. Chris came over to greet him.

"Same here," They headed down into the corridors of the RPD building; Chris and Jill seemed relieved to be in the familiar building once more.

A set of paramedics pushed the trolley down the corridor and they all looked to see who was on it. Captain Blue recognised the features of his old friend, though he still hadn't recovered and lay still on the stretcher. Jill went over to the body and brushed her fingers through Scarlet's singed hair.

"Thank you Captain." She reached forward and kissed his cheek. Claire came over and did the same thing.

From down the corridor Leon and Carlos watched as the two girls crowded around the captain.

"Do you get the feeling that should have been us?" Leon asked, but Carlos just shrugged.

Chris shot them a glance and they both shuffled off trying not to be noticed.

The paramedics continued to wheel Scarlet off to Dr. Fawn's office. Jill clung to Chris's arm as Captain Blue addressed them again.

"You'll have to go with Captain Magenta to give a full briefing on what happened," Blue said to the STARS members. "I think Colonel White will be interested to know what happened. I think your remaining team mates will be happy to know you're back as well."

Chris and Jill nodded, Claire hovered by them and Chris turned to his sister.

"You'll be alright won't you?" he asked, she nodded back and Chris and Jill headed down the corridor. Claire headed back to the roof. Captain Blue watched as Chris and Jill met up with Barry and Rebecca and got into an enthusiastic talk. Then he followed in the direction Claire had gone.

Claire stood by the edge of the roof overlooking the city. Captain Blue headed over to her.

"You ok?" Blue asked. Claire turned round and smiled half-heartedly.

"Yeah," she said and went back to admiring the view. Blue walked over and watched with her. Up here it was oddly quiet, you could almost mistake it for being a peaceful normal day, but if you looked closely at the city you could make out the crowds of people trying still trying to sort out the problem, either clean-up crews checking for any remaining stragglers or people trying to clean the streets, attempting to get back to their old homes.

"How's Sherry?" she asked.

"She's fine, she's downstairs in one of the rooms. She fell asleep waiting for you to come back."

Claire smiled, looking out across the streets.

"It's strange thinking how we could have died today," she said; she was shivering slightly and Blue put his arm round her shoulders.

"We've gone through quite a lot today, but we survived, and that's the important thing."

She smiled at him, it was turning into late afternoon and a warm breeze swept across the city. A Spectrum helicopter was taking off and Captain Blue was sure that Scarlet was on it. The helicopter headed off to the shape of Cloudbase that could be made out in the distant skyline. They both turned to each other and looked out onto the horizon.

The wind whipped through the valley outside the city. Out here the wildlife was undisturbed, all the activity had focused round the city and no one paid any attention to a single body which lay forgotten in amongst the fields. Twisted and tangled the remains of a STARS uniform peeked out from under a singed black coat. It lay there peacefully, unmoved as no one noticed it.

Suddenly the body's eyes flared open, a glowing mix of green and red.

Thank you to Hazel for checking through this continuity crazy story

Thanks to Chris for making this site

Thanks to my brother and Shane for listening to my mad ideas as I tried to work this whole mess

38


End file.
